430 BRITISH OKIBATIU^. 



confusion arose from the early writers identifying 

 the Linnsean species, and also Hermann's species, with 

 the Acarus corticalis of de Geer, a creature which does 

 not in any way resemble it, and which certainly is a 

 Notaspis, using that name in the present limited sense 

 instituted by Nicolet (not in Hermann's sense), and 

 not a DamcEUS as Hermann's D. davipes is; de Greer 

 himself identifies his species with Geoffrey's, and 

 Latreille identifies Geoffrey's with Linnasus's and Her- 

 mann's. Thus it came to be taken for granted that they 

 were identical, whereas in reality they are probably 

 all different ; Hermann's and de Geer's are certainly 

 widely different. It is remarkable that de Geer saw 

 and figured the triple claw, which is not specially easy 

 to see, even in a modern microscope. 



C. L. Koch was probably the first author who really 

 saw that there was more than one species of Dammus. 

 I do not see any reason to doubt that his D. genicu- 

 latus was the species which Nicolet called by the 

 same name, and to which it is ordinarily applied at 

 present. Koch, however, follows earlier writers in 

 identifying Hermann's D. clavipes with D. geniculatus, 

 although he seems to me probably to have found 

 Hermann's species, and seeing that it was probably 

 different, but not recognising it as Hermann's, he calls 

 it D. nodipes. He does not fall into the error of identi- 

 fying it with de Geer's species. 



Nicolet commences his notice of Hermann's species 

 by saying that the two have been confused together 

 and that he has separated them, and it would be 

 thought that he had paid special attention to the sub- 

 ject ; his figures and drawings are quite sufficient for 

 identification, but when we come to the synonyms we 

 find confusion worse confounded; he has copied all 

 the mistakes of the earlier writers, and has transferred 

 all the names prior to Koch to Hermann's N.' clavipes, 

 which he calls D. auritus, whereas if it were, as he 

 says, LinnsDus's species, he clearly should have called it 

 geniculatus. He also drops Hermann's name of clavipes, 



