24 BRITISH HYDRACHNIDiE. 



they prey on one another. It is not safe to put other soft-bodied 

 Hydrachnids into the same tank, unless they are intended as food, 

 for the Lifftnesia make very short work of them, and extract their 

 life's blood in a very short time ; Eylais extendens appears to be a 

 particularly dainty morsel, and specially adapted to their taste. 



Not having been successful in breeding, although I have kept 

 the adults so long at the time, I am unable to give a figure of the 

 larva. Dr. George tells me he also has had no better fortune than 

 myself, although he has kept them in confinement for a consider- 

 able length of time ; it may be they do not deposit ova at all. 

 Anyhow, it is a question which yet remains to be answered. Per- 

 haps accident will at some future time solve the problem for us. 



The next stage, the " nymph," I have taken a great many times 

 in this form. They are much like the adults, but have only four 

 genital suckers instead of six, as shown in Fig. 5. 



Linmesia longipalpis (Koch). 

 1835 — 4^- — C- L* Koch, Deutschla7ids Crust. ^ etc., p. 7, Fig. 8. 



There can, I think, be no mistake about this species being 

 correctly named longipalpis., for the palpi is certainly very long ; in 

 more than one specimen I have found the palpi longer than the 

 first pair of legs. Koch gives a beautiful little figure of this mite, 

 but it is coloured yellow, whereas all those specimens which I have 

 found have always been bright red, with pale blue legs. But colour 

 only gives us a variety ; it does not constitute a species. So we 

 must not consider the colour, but look only to the structure for 

 the identification of species. 



The length of body is aboui 7/i5oths of an inch. The only 

 district in which, to my knowledge, it has been found in Britain is 

 N. Wales. Mr. Scourfield sent me several specimens from Llyn- 

 Guetnar, Dolgelly, N. Wales, in June, 1895, and I took about a 

 dozen more specimens in Llyn-Padarn, and in a small lake near 

 Newborough, Anglesey, when collecting with Mr. Scourfield in 

 September, 1896. It may be very common in all lake districts, 

 but up to the time of writing, the above are the only localities in 

 which I have known them to be met with. 



