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A List of Feesh-water Mites found near Oban, N.B. 



By Chas. D. Soar, F.R.M.S. 



{Taken as read June 15th, 1900.) 



Mr. Taverner, a member of this Club, has kindly sent me 

 two distinct collections of fresh-water mites from the district 

 round Oban, N.B. On examination, I found the collections to 

 comprise about two thousand specimens in all, representing about 

 forty species belonging to some twenty genera. 



T cannot discover that we have had a list of Scottish Hydrach- 

 nidse published before, so I think this will be a good opportunity 

 to put such a list on record. It will, I hope, serve as a founda- 

 tion which can be added to from time to time, as other species 

 are found by future collectors. The collections now under 

 consideration were made in June and July 1898, and in July 

 1899. The last-named year yielded the greatest number of 

 species. This was probably owing to the collections in that year 

 having been made over a larger area than in 1898. 



It may be interesting to note that there is one mite which is 

 a very common one in England that does not appear in this 

 Scottish list, and that is Arrenurus glohator, MUller. In England 

 I have taken more specimens of this mite than any other except 

 Diplodontus despiciens. It figures in quite eight collections out 

 of every ten, and being so common here, it is very remarkable 

 that Mr. Taverner failed to find it in Scotland. But against 

 this absence of a very common species we have to set three others 

 not before recorded in Britain. These are Acercus ligulifer, Oxus 

 longisetus, and Torrenticolor anortiala, all very rare, only one 

 specimen being taken of each. Figures and descriptions of all 

 these can be found in Piersig's great work on German 

 Hydrachnidse (Deutschlands Hydrachniden, " Zoologica," Heft 

 22, 1897—1900). 



There is one other point to which attention may be directed, 



