138 J. MURRAY 



Macrobiotus hufelandioides, sp. n. (Plate XVIII. Figs. 29a-29c) 



Specific characters. Small. Claws of hufelandi type, very thick, the larger one 

 of each pair with two strong supplementary points. Teeth slender, curved or bent. 

 Gullet slender. Pharynx shortly oval, with three short rods in each row of thicken- 

 ings. Egg-processes conical with expanded discoid tops. 



Detailed description. Length, 350 /" and upwards. No figures noted for larger 

 examples. The teeth are slender, and taper very gradually. They are bent at a very 

 obtuse angle just after emerging from the guides, and again more abruptly near 

 the furca. The gullet is scarcely more than one-third of the relative width of that 

 of hufelandii. The three rods in the pharynx are about twice as long as broad, 

 and have rounded ends. They are of nearly equal size. The first one, though 

 clearly distinguishable from the apophysis, is apparently closely attached to the end 

 of the gullet. There is no comma, or a very small and obscure one. 



The stomach is brown, with darker brown patches. The fat-cells are 8 to 10 M in 

 diameter. There are two dark eyes. The claws are very stout and strong ; the 

 lesser one considerably shorter than the other. 



Eggs were found in the body which, when squeezed out and freed from the 

 surrounding membrane, were found to have processes like those of the typical 

 hufelandii egg. The processes taper from a broad base, which is surrounded by a 

 circlet of dots, and are abruptly expanded at the summit into flat discs. No eggs 

 were found which contained embryos, but the establishment of the relation of the egg 

 to the animal was made in the more satisfactory way. If an embryo with a slender 

 gullet were found in an egg, apparently of hufelandii, it might be supposed that the 

 young of that species had the gullet more slender (although I believe this is not so). 

 When the eggs are got in a mature adult, however, there is no such doubt. The 

 species occurred in two localities in the same district, confirming the first observations. 



Habitat. Australian Alps, near the southern border of New South Wales ; at 

 the Creel, altitude about 3000 feet, and on the summit of a peak near the Hospice 

 on the road to Mount Kosciusko, altitude 5000 to 6000 feet. 



The combination of an egg exactly like, and claws sufficiently like, those of 

 M. hufelandii, with slender teeth and gullet, distinguishes the species from all others. 

 It is impossible to say whether it is really very close to M. hufelandii, or has acquired 

 the characters in which it resembles it independently. All the closest relations of 

 M. hufelandii have very wide gullets and thick powerful teeth. One form of M. inter- 

 medius, which is not at all closely related to M. hufelandii, has similar egg-processes. 



It has been known that some forms of M. hufelandii could not be positively 

 distinguished from allied species, and the egg had to be relied upon for their 

 separation. It was supposed that the egg, with its disc-topped processes with their 

 basal circlets of dots, was unmistakable. 



