TARDIGRADA: AUSTRALIA 127 



the dorsal spine, and the presence of little conical processes at thep ostero-lateral 

 angles of IV. Occasionally these little cones occur also at segments II. and III. 

 Examples of 175 and 140 AI had eggs, which measured 56 M by 40 . 



Echiniscus pulcher, sp. n. (Plate XVIII. Fig. 34) 



Specific characters. Large, red; V. and VL^ separate ; three median plates; 

 V. a narrow half-ring ; pairs obscurely divided ; lateral processes a a seta, b, c, d, 

 conical knobs, e a long seta ; no fringe on fourth legs, inner claws with small barbs. 



General description. Length 300 M, seta e 100 /x. The four cirri near the 

 mouth have conspicuous conical bases, the palps beside them are very large ; seta a 

 measures about 75 M, and has a palp or auricle at its base. The plates may be 

 regarded as eleven in number (the normal number is twelve in that section of the 

 genus which has V. and VI. separate), but many of the divisions are obscure. The 

 head and shoulder plates, and V. and VI., are quite distinct. The three median 

 have the posterior edge distinct and rounded. The second and third median are 

 divided by a median line ; their anterior edge is faintly marked, and between it and 

 the pairs there is an area whioh may be regarded as belonging to either. V. is a 

 very narrow band, with no sign of being a pair, and sharply separated from the 

 plates before and behind. VI. is not distinctly trefoliate, but there are obscure lines 

 where the cut of the trefoil would be, and those of the opposite sides appear to be 

 joined. Seta e springs not from the very edge of the plate but a little way up on 

 the dorsal surface. 



The animal is much flattened dorso-ventrally. The plates are very finely dotted 

 with pellucid dots. The claws are slender and the small barb is very near the base. 

 The legs are short. 



The larva is unusually large, measuring 175 /*. It has two claws, and differs in 

 no other respect from the adult. Eggs up to the number of nine have been seen in 

 the cast skin, by far the largest number I have seen in an Echiniscus. 



Habitat. Among moss from the summit of a mountain, Pretty Point, in the 

 Australian Alps near Mount Kosciusko, 6000 feet, April 1909. Very abundant in 

 the tufts of one kind of moss, which has not been identified. Not known elsewhere. 

 The skins with eggs were common, and a number of larvse were seen. 



There are about a dozen species in the section of the genus to which E. pulcher 

 belongs. They have segments V. and VI. distinct. None of these species come near 

 enough to pulcher to cause any difficulty in discriminating them. Only two of them 

 possess seta e (E. borealis and E. islandicus) and they differ conspicuously, having 

 numerous long spines, lateral and dorsal, on the body. 



E. imberbis (38) is most like E. pulcher, but the long seta is d, and segment V. 

 is a pair and bears two dorsal spines. E. pulcher is the only species known to me 

 which has plate V. decidedly as a half-ring, and not paired. 



