30 



Nympha accessoria (Fig. 39—42). Length 720 yt,. In the Tijd- 

 schrift voor Entomologie, vol. 43, p. 125, I described a creature, 

 which was at that time wrongly interpreted by me. I viz. thougkt 

 it tbe adult, and the skin, within which I saw it by transparency, 

 I called a «so-called male." I was badly mistaken. This skin was 

 nothing but a deutonymphal one. I have had now a rich oppor- 

 tunity to study the change of a deutonympha into a third nympha, 

 which I, however, will not call a tritonympha, but a nympha 

 accessoria, for the simple reason that I have also foliowed the 

 change of a deutonympha into a male. Consequently I reason: 

 there is no tritonympha, no nymphal form between the deuto- 

 nympha and a male ! What is the signification of this accessorial 

 nymph? I don't know it. It does not occur frequently. Among 

 a hundred specimen I found only two deutonymphal skins within 

 which a nympha accessoria was distinctly visible, and only foar 

 free such nymphae. And in none of them another creature was 

 to observe. 



The nympha accessoria is a most beautiful creature. In fig. 39 

 you observe a dorsal aspect of it. The dorsal shield shows a 

 distinct marking which separates the two parts, comparable with 

 the anterior and posterior protonymphal shields. All the pits are 

 present, but moreover there are two pits before the foremost 

 deutonymphal pit, and on the posterior part of the dorsal shield 

 there are some other markings on the lateral margins. The most 

 remarkable feature is the presence of three pairs of hairs or bristles 

 on the posterior part of the dorsal shield which are wholly absent 

 in all the other forms in this species, they may be protonympha, 

 deutonympha, male or female ! Another striking character is 

 the beautiful shape of the eight hairs before the dorsal shield and 

 of the two hairs on each side of it. I have drawn such a hair 

 apart in fig. 40. A third curious characteristic of the nympha 

 accessoria is the presence of 22 pairs of hairs which resemble 

 sea-anemones ! I have drawn the left group of 22 such hairs in 

 fig. 41. Which significaiion have these hairs to the creature? Who 

 has ever met with such hairs in Acari or in other Arthropoda? 



