EAST KENT NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 19 



tbe worthy veteran Dr. Lankester bad taken a right step in 

 this direction, by pointing out what profitable objects tbe cell- 

 structure of plants might thus afford. And now we have seen 

 how even such a single part as the eye-lens of animals might be 

 easily made into numberless microscopic objects, very beauti- 

 ful individually and not less useful collectively in the service of 

 systematic zoology. 



dOih The General Annual Meeting was held ; and the Report, 



containing the Address of tbe President, the report of the 

 Committee, the Proceedings of the Society, and other matters, 

 has since been issued to tbe members. There was afterwards a 

 recess of several weeks. 



March 7th. — Colonel Horsley gave some explanatory sketches 

 of his views concerning his method of resolving the markings 

 of Pleurosigma. Mr. Fullagar produced very small and lively 

 Polyps, bred in his aquarium, as he believed, from autumnal or 

 winter eggs of Ili/dra vulgaris ; he showed also neat prepara- 

 tions of the lingual teetli of Planorbis ; whereupon the Hon. 

 Secretary detailed some of his own experiments showing, as he 

 believed must be already known, that these teeth in snails and 

 slugs are composted of pure silex, and so no wonder that these 

 creatures should be able to comminute or bore through 

 very refractory substances. Mr. George Gulliver, late of the 

 King's School, exhibited living specimens of Argas reflexus, and 

 read a paper thereon, of which the following is a summary : 



On a Canferhury Arachnid new to the JSritish Fauna. 



Although a great fane in the midst of a populous city might 

 seem an unpromising field for an exploratory excursion of a 

 Natural History Society, we shall soon see that our venerable 

 cathedral harbours a zoological species not yet discovered else- 

 where in Britain. This animal is the Argas reflexus of Latreille, 

 liki/nchoprioncol umbcB of Hermann, a,nd Ixodes marginatus of Pabri- 

 cius. It is about a third of an inch long and a fifth broad, 

 but many are smaller, and some not more than a fifteenth of an 

 inch in length. They are all opaque, of a dark, dull, and uniform 

 brown color, and with a well-defined entire and paler margin. 

 The coriaceous integument of the under and upper parts of the 

 larger specimens is regularly dotted, and these dots under the 

 microscope recall the shagreen of certain Selachii, and appear to 

 be composed of carbonate of lime ; at least they dissolve quickly 

 and completely, with evolution of gas, when treated with an acid. 

 Each foot has at its tip two very sharp sickle-shaped claws, by which 

 the creature holds on to its host ; and there is also a tubercle at a 

 little distance from the base of the claws. Though like a tick, no 

 such proboscis as that which distinguishes the true ticks was seen, 

 nor could any eyes be discovered. When punctured, much fluid of 

 a very dark red colour exuded, and this colour was found to be 



