EAST KENT NATURAL HISToRV SOClETV. 205 



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

 winter eggs of Hjjdra vulgaris ; he showed also neat prepara- 

 tions of the lingual teeth 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 composed of pure silex, and so no wonder that these 

 creatures should be able to comminute or bore through 

 very refractory substances. Mr. George Grulliver, late of tlie 

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

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



On a Canterbury Arachnid new to tlie British 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 Arrjas rejlexus of Latreille, 

 Ithynchop7'ioncolumhceo^J{.evm.2i^xm,^n^Ixodesmnrginatus of Fabri- 

 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 

 owing to numerous oblong corpuscles, very variable in size, but 

 those of average magnitude were each about -^^^-^ of an inch long 

 and -f^^ broad. They were individually of an intensely deep red 

 colour, and all readily soluble in weak acetic acid, though they 

 retained their form distinctly for many days in water, being not at 

 all soluble therein. On dissection the seat of these curious red 

 bodies seemed to be within the alimentary casca. There were also 

 many minute molecules in the fluid. This remarkable Arach- 

 nid has long been known in the dark recesses of our time- 

 honoured fane, and regarded there as an " Insect peculiar to 

 Canterbury Cathedral." The verger, who gave some of them to 

 Mr. Fullagar, so described them ; and of these my father kept 

 a few quite without food, in a tin box, for upwards of five months, 

 during the whole of which time they continued lively, and ever 

 ready, when touched, to sham death, after the manner of verit- 

 able spiders. As we could not identify the Cathedral arachnid 



