152 BRITISH HYDRACHNIDiE. 



When dissolved, add lo parts oil of turpentine. Upon highly 



polished brass this gives a deep red gold colour that is lasting and 



very handsome. 



For a lacquer to use on cold metal we give the following, but 



do not recommend it, or, in fact, any cold lacquer : — 



Shellac ... ... ... 1 6 parts. 



Dragon's Blood ... ••• i » 



Anatto ... ... ••. 8 „ 



Alcohol ... ... -.. 256 ,, 



Digest together until the shellac is dissolved ; strain, etc., as No. i. 



Brit(0b Ibijbracbniba^^ 



By C. D. Soar. PI. X. 



WHEN we consider the great number of natural history 

 societies and microscopical clubs that are in existence in 

 Great Britain, it makes one wonder why that interesting 

 family of the Acarina — viz., Hydrachnidce — have been so long 

 neglected. Perhaps the want of good text-books on the subject 

 is the reason. There is no work on the Hydrachna in English. 

 Andrew Murray, in his " Economic Entomology — Aptera,^' men- 

 tions a few species, but some of them are wrongly named and the 

 drawings very bad. Dr. F. C. George, in the pages of Science Gossips 

 gave a few papers and a few good illustrations, but did not get 

 further than a few species of one genus. The last edition of 

 Carpenter dismisses the subject in about six lines. There are a 

 few isolated papers in Microscopical Journals, but I do not think 

 any are much more than a mere reference to the subject. On the 

 Continent a great deal has been written from Miiller to Neumann. 

 I propose, with the editor's permission, to give a paper from time 

 to time on the British Hydrachnidae, each paper to illustrate a 

 genus, with one species merely as an example ; the letterpress to 

 be as brief as the subject will allow. 



This, I hope, will lay a foundation for anyone about to take up 

 the study of these interesting mites. The illustrations will all be 

 from my own drawings taken from the life and all measurements 

 in English. 



