350 BRITISH ORIBATIDiE. 



fourtli pairs of legs articulated at the edge of the 

 body. 



This genus was originally instituted by Hermann, 

 but in his work it practically includes the whole family ; 

 the restriction of it to the sense employed in this book 

 is due to Nicolet, who, however, was only acquainted 

 with a small number of the species. 



I am aware that I am differing from several acaro- 

 logists in considering the Belha of Heyden to repre- 

 sent this genus ; I have therefore placed a ? to draw 

 attention to it. Belha has generally been taken to 

 refer to BamcBus, Koch ; I fail, however, to see the 

 grounds for this supposition. Belha is founded upon 

 the type of Notaspis corj/nopus, Hermann. On refer- 

 ence to Hermann's work it will be found that his 

 description of that species is very short, and that, short 

 as it is, it includes a manifest error, the tarsi being 

 described as chelate. But I think that anyone referring 

 to Hermann's figure must see that it is intended for a 

 Notaspis, in the sense used by Nicolet and in this book, 

 and is not a Damceiis. 



This genus, although Nicolet was not fortunate in 

 finding them, appears in England to include more 

 species than any other in the Apterogasterinoi, and some 

 of these species, e. g. N. lucorum, are as abundant in 

 number of individuals as any of the Orihatidoi. The 

 terrestrial species are usually very active and many 

 are highly polished ; others finely or coarsely punc- 

 tured or pitted ; but I am not acquainted with any 

 that are really rough or have other distinct patterns on 

 the notogaster, as in Tegeocranus, &c. 



The genus naturally divides itself into two groups, 

 the tridactyle and the monodactyle; the latter are 

 mostly considerably smaller than the former, N. similis 

 being rather an exception ; N. lacustris is also excep- 

 tional, but the aquatic species of OrihatidoB usually are 

 so. Nicolet treats N. hipilis as the type, and as he only 

 knew of three species he was probably right in doing 



