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Some Notes on Hydrachnidji. 

 By C. D. Soar. 



(Read November 20th, 1896.) 



The drawings on the table illustrate (so far as my own 

 knowledge goes) the different species of water mites taken at our 

 excursions this year. The Quekett Club have had twelve excur- 

 sions in all, eleven being for fresh-water collecting and one for 

 salt-water. Ten of these I have personally attended, but 

 through press of business was unable to be present at the fifth on 

 the list, viz., that to Lough ton on May 30th ; on this occasion 

 Messrs. Burton and Turner kindly collected for me, and by 

 posting the mites on, enabled me to make the list for the year 

 complete. There are forty-one sheets in all, each sheet being 

 devoted to one species. Sometimes the male and female are on 

 the same sheet, and sometimes they are on separate ones. All 

 were not drawn this year; some were drawn in 1891:, and some 

 in 1895 ; they are, however, intended to represent the species 

 that have been taken this year only. The coloured drawings 

 were made direct from life, but those in black and white were 

 drawn after the death of the mite. There are thirty-two 

 distinct species in all, which is rather a small number consider- 

 ing the large number of known species of some genera. Take 

 Arrenurus for example, which has over fifty described species ; 

 here only five are recorded. The result is a little disappointing, 

 nevertheless the list is richer in genera than it is in species, 

 for there are representatives of fifteen distinct genera, and this 

 is satisfactory. I know of only twenty-two British genera; the 

 finding therefore of fifteen within a radius of twenty miles 

 round London, in one season, may be considered very good, and 

 speaks well for the Quekett collecting grounds. 



The names of twenty-seven species are probably correctly 

 given ; of five species, however, the specific names have for the 

 present been left in abeyance. 



Although most of the time was taken up in collecting, examin- 



