VARROA JAC013S0NII. 219 



are only very thiuly hairy distally. No jugular shields. 

 Sternal shield (6g. 2) with a crescent-shaped fixed part and a 

 ditto free band lying free over the coxae of legs II, III and IV, 

 lohich is a very singular property, hitherto unknown in Acari. 

 This free band is slightly excavate above coxae II, and pro- 

 vided with 5 pairs of bristles instead of 3 pairs; so it may be 

 a sterno-metasterual shield, but if so it should have only 

 4 pairs of bristles; therefore it has one pair of bristles 

 more than usual. No metasternal shield if not fused with 

 the sternal one (see hereabove). Genitoventral shield nearly 

 pentagonal, with one (rounded) angle forward; genital 

 part of it small and bare; ventral part very large and 

 covered with hairs of the same kind as those of the dorsal 

 side. With two long sides it nearly touches the inguinal 

 shields, and with a short side, slightly concave, it is turned 

 towards the anal shield. This is nearly semicircular, with 

 rounded side backward and a slightly convex side forward, 

 with the small anus far backward and behind the anus 

 the narrow crescent-shaped cribrum, moreover the usual 

 three rather long and straight circumanal hairs. Inguinal 

 shields enormous, nearly triangular, one straight side an- 

 teriorly, horizontal; one slightly concave side nearly con- 

 tiguous to the genitosternal- and anal shields; and finally 

 the rounded third side nearly contiguous to the ventrally 

 sufflexed margin of the dorsal shield. They are wholly 

 covered with hairs. There are no real pedal shields but 

 each foveola is surrounded by a chitinous ring (I have 

 drawn one, of the IVth left leg ; at the right). Metapodial 

 shields very large and especially enlarged outward, so that 

 even their greater part is situated nearly outward of 

 the fourth leg. The most curious characteristic is the situation 

 and the appearance of the peritrematal shields; these are 

 only attached to the ventral surface with that part which 

 bears the stigma, whilst their remaining part (almost three 

 quarter of the whole) is free, so that occasionally the leg 

 IV may come between the ventral surface and the peri- 

 trematal shield (as is shown in fig. 2 at the left); it may 



Notes from tlie Leyden ]VIuseiim, ~V"ol. XXIV. 



