340 BRll^lSH ORTBATID^. 



spines on the abdomen are longer in the present species 

 than in T. latiis, and that the brown, trifid projec- 

 tions round the margin of the abdomen of the nymph 

 have an extra brown point just at the insertion of the 

 spine, which is absent from those of the nymph of T. 

 latus (see fig. 9). 



Distribution. — Species generally distributed, not un- 

 common ; found in decayed stumps of trees and fallen 

 branches in woods, &c., with T. latus, for which it may 

 easily be mistaken. 



Tegeocranus cepheifoemis,* Nic. PI. XXV, figs. 1 — 7. 



Tegeocranus cepheiformis, Nic. P. 465, pi. ix, fig. 1. 



— — Michael. Abb. d. Naturw. Yer. zu 



Bremen, Mai, 1885, pp. 207 

 —213. 



Average length about '62 mm. 



Average breadth about '43 mm. 



Average length of legs (first pair) about '31 mm. 



Average length of legs (second pair) about '28 mm. 



Average length of legs (third pair) about "34 mm. 



Average length of legs (fourth pair) about '37 mm. 



This very interesting species was first discovered 

 and named by Nicolet, who, however, states that it is 

 identical with Koch's Gepheus latus ; had it been so 

 Nicolet's name could not have stood. Relying on 

 Nicolet' s statement, I, in the first volume of this 

 book, treated his name as a synonym of Koch's species. t 

 Since the publication of that volume I have dis- 

 covered Nicolet' s species in England and traced its life- 

 history ; and I find that, although the imagos of the 

 two are very similar, yet they present certain small but 

 constant differences, and the two creatures in their 

 immature stages are quite unlike. Therefore Nicolet's 



* Cepheus, tbe genus of tbat name {Oribatidce) ; forma, a shape or 

 likeness. 



t Vol. i, p. 310. 



