TARDIGIiADA: AUSTRALIA 189 



There must now be added this additional worry to the troubles ot the student of 

 water-bears, that when he finds an egg of the hufelandi type, he must get an 

 embryo in order to complete the identification. 



Macrobiotus occidentalis, Murray ? (Plate XXI. Figs. 54a-54e) 

 (See Canadian Tardigrada, p. 169 in this paper) 



In the Australian Alps there occurred, at an- elevation of between 5000 and 6000 

 feet, an animal closely related to that which is described under the above name in a 

 later section of this paper, if it is not identical with it. 



It is a large animal of yellow colour, with dotted skin. The skin is double, with 

 a clear fluid circulating between the layers. In the type this fluid contains numerous 

 thin, hyaline rectangular plates, which are absent from the Australian form. There 

 is a comma in the pharynx. 



The species was described among the Canadian Tardigrada, as the eggs were 

 found there, and the stud)' completed. 



No eggs like the Canadian ones were found in Australia. 



An identical water-bear was got in Hawaii (see p. 155 and Plate XIX. Fig. 39.) 



The curious distribution will be discussed in the Canadian section of this paper. 



Macrobiotus intermedius, Plate (23) 



Habitat. Eumundi, Queensland. 



This species is one of a group of three, very closely related, and most readily 

 distinguished by their eggs. M. intermedius has an egg with short blunt processes. 

 In the typical form these are expanded from narrow bases, and are thus somewhat 

 top-shaped. Another form of egg is like a miniature of that of M. hufelandii. The 

 processes taper from the base and are surmounted by disc-shaped or saucer-shaped 

 expansions. 



The egg of M. crassidens has very long slender processes, that of M. aculeatus 

 has somewhat similar, but thinner and more scattered, processes. That animal is 

 distinguished by the dorsal processes. 



Sometimes the processes of the variety having eggs of the hufelandi type are 

 irregularly furcate at the tips, recalling those of M. furciger and M. orcadensis. 



Macrobiotus crassidens, Murray (20). 



At Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, altitude 2000 to 

 3000 feet. 



Macrobiotus aculeatus, sp. n. (Plate XVIII. Figs. 27a-27e) 



Specific characters. Size moderate ; old examples densely pigmented ; skin 

 bearing 2-6 soft white conical dorsal processes in pairs on the segments over the 



