90 MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES AND OBSERVATIONS. 
Note on an Acarus.—During the prevalence of the windy 
weather of which we have had so much this spring, I found the 
most productive localities for insects to be the depressions in the 
dry sand, on the sea coast, and in these I have found several 
novelties for our fauna. These were somewhat difficult to find 
from the immense accumulation of a minute yellowish brown 
Acarus, which swarmed on every thing, in and near the holes. 
Every insect, however minute, had as many passengers as ever 
he could stagger under, and woe betide him if he lost his feet, 
for the acari immediately swarmed in such numbers to-his legs 
that never would he rise again. An attempt to fly was equally 
disastrous, for neither could the beetles close their elytra, or fold 
their wings, from the numbers of their active enemy. I saw 
flies, and good sized ones too, so completely covered as to appear 
like a spikelet of dried clover; body, legs, and wings being so 
invested that the poor creatures would find relief only in death. 
When disturbed the acari left the insects in alarm. Depressions 
in the sand appeared as if filled with rusty sediment from their 
numbers. I am unacquainted with the specific name of the 
acarus, but it is not the species which affects Geotrupus and 
others, but a very much smaller one.—Jbid, May 20, 1863. 
Desmidie, §-c., on the Northumberland Moors.—The peat-bogs 
in the neighbourhood of the Northumberland lakes are peculiarly 
rich in alge, especially the ‘unicellular’ forms. In September, 
1861, I gathered there many different species of Desmids, viz:— 
Closterium Dianw, striolatum, moniliferum, didymoticum, Cornu, 
Grifithii, costatum, lanceolatum; Tetnemorus granulatus and 
Brebissonii, Micrasterias denticulata, and rotata ; Euastrum didelta, 
errucosum, oblongum ; Staurastrum muricatum, orbiculare, cuspww- 
datum, paradoxum; Penium interruptum, and margaritaceum; 
Docidium truncatum and clavatum; Gonatozygon Ralfsii (2), 
Cosmarium margaritaceum and Didymoprium Borreri. Among the 
more interesting of the higher alge were Zygogonium ericetorum, 
Bulbochete setigera, and Draparnaldia cruciata, Hicks.— George 
S. Brady. : 
