84 J. MURRAY 



clature, and other matters, the Tardigrada of each country visited will be treated in 

 a separate section, five altogether. 



In the section dealing with each country there will be given first an account 01 

 how the collecting was done in that country, and a summary of previous knowledge 

 of the Tardigrada. Then will follow the list of species and notes upon them, includ- 

 ing descriptions of new species. The peculiarities of the Tardigrade fauna, and its 

 relation to the rest of the world, will be briefly treated. General questions of 

 geographical distribution, &c., concerning the entire area over which work has been 

 done, will be reserved for discussion in the general summary of results. 



The information brought together about Tardigrada might have been exhibited in 

 a more concise form by giving a complete list of all the species collected in all the 

 countries, in one table, followed by notes on the species, and a discussion of general 

 questions of distribution. It seems to me, however, so important to the student to 

 find all the information about each country collected together by itself, that I 

 have adopted this form, even at the expense of a little repetition, and some redun- 

 dancy in the tables illustrating the distribution. 



The object has been to offer the information in accessible form, so that the 

 student of one country may readily find what he wants. This has been attempted 

 by a suitable classification of the facts under various headings, and for further 

 assistance, there is a " Contents " page, and at the end an alphabetical index to the 

 species, while the explanations of the plates have references to the pages of the text 

 where the species figured are described. 



We have thus what is practically a series of five papers, each complete in itself, 

 with Introductory and Recapitulatory chapters, dealing with all of them collectively. 



STRUCTURE OF TARDIGRADA 



The student is referred to other works for a general account of the structure of 

 Tardigrada. Here there will be given only such details as are necessary to the 

 understanding of the descriptions of the species. 



Ecliiniscus. In this genus the important points in description are : the number and 

 texture of the plates ; the processes on the body ; the claws ; and the skinfold (fringe) 

 of the last legs. The plates vary in number. The minimum may be taken as nine 

 and the maximum as twelve. There may often appear to be more than twelve 

 plates, but I regard these as originating in the subdividing of the normal plates. 

 The plates are either single or paired. The single plates are of two kinds : first, 

 large, covering the back arid sides ; second, small, triangular, median plates. The 

 pairs meet in the middle line, and go over the sides like the large single plates. 



The number of segments of an Ecliiniscus have been variously estimated by 

 different writers. Doyere gives four body-segments, without regarding the head, 

 which he supposes to show traces of several segments. Schultze's E. heller- 



