HYDRACARINA : THE GENUS EYLAIS LATR. Ill 



The air sacs are shorter than the pharynx, which extends con- 

 siderably beyond the posterior line of the capitulum. The pharyn- 

 geal plate is cone-shaped, broad and rounded at its base. The 

 ridge is pushed well back, reducing the metapharynx to a narrow 

 strip with a hook-like projection at each end, giving rise to the 

 specific name. 



The process at the inner end of the second pair of epimera is 

 broad and ligulate and is directed posteriorly. That at the end 

 of the fourth pair is also ligulate, and is directed posteriorly 

 like that at the end of the second pair ; though rather large, it 

 is stiffened by a strip of chitin, which extends beneath the epi- 

 meral plates to the anterior margin of the third pair. 



E. hamata is one of the large species, as it may attain a length of 

 5 "5 mm. It has been found in Britain and Ireland, and has 

 further been recorded from Finland, Russia, Macedonia, Palestine, 

 as well as Austria and Germany. 



[E. georgei. — In 1901, Soar described a new species which he 

 named E. georgei [Science Gossip, N.S., viii. 48). It differed from 

 hamata with its wide and typically straight bridge between the 

 capsules in that^^the bridge was more or less curved. Koenike 

 appears to have been of the opinion that georgei and some other 

 wide-bridged species were only varieties of hamata, and it is note- 

 worthy that the metapharyngeal hooks of hamata appear in 

 most of these other species also. Halbert has noted {Ann. Nat. 

 Hist., Ser. 7, xii. 506) that in the Irish forms of hamata the bridge 

 varies from a straight to a more or less bent-back outline. In the 

 specimens of georgei examined by me, variation to a more or less 

 marked degree was present. In one, the bridge had become 

 attenuated so as to resemble two long links joined at their inner 

 ends by a small ring, and at the outer ends joined to the capsules 

 by another small ring. The temptation to mark this as a very 

 distinct variety was strong, but, with the fuller knowledge that 

 we now possess of the capacity for variation inherent in Eylais, 

 I think we must consider georgei as a synonym of hamata. — W. W.] 



Eylais miilleri Koen. (PL 3, fig. 3). 



1897. Koenike. Abh. Natur. Ver. Bremen, vol. xiv. p. 282. 



In this species the eye capsules are rather wider apart than in 

 E. extendens, but the intercapsular bridge is of about the same 



