George : Lincolnshire Mites. 265 



situated as I am, far from any good natural history library. 

 Berlese g^ives larg-e coloured fig"ures of E, mollis and E. geo- 

 metricns, (these I have seen at the British Museum, on one 

 of the rare visits I have been able to make to its Reading" 

 Room) ; Professor Berlese has also kindly examined my 

 mounted specimens, and confirmed this diagnosis. 



Fig. I. — Epicrius mollis. Kramer. 



I first found this mite in moss, in January 1878 ; it is rather 

 small, but like the rest of the Gamasi it is very active ; it has 

 no visible eyes, the front legs are long and slender, and used 

 chiefly as feelers, and not for progression ; the skin is highly 

 chitinized, and dotted over with angular papillae, well seen at 

 the extreme edge of the body ; there are also four rows of very 

 long curved hairs, which extend considerably beyond the body, 

 these hairs must render the creature's skin very sensitive. In 

 colour it is of a beautiful transparent yellow, the papillae or 

 tubercles a dark orange, one specimen was considerably darker 

 in its general colour, being of a sort of chocolate or cinnamon 

 colour, rather translucent, no doubt, like many other mites, the 

 colour is much influenced by the nature of the food recently 

 ingested ; Mr. Soar's beautiful drawing gives a good idea of 

 this extraordinary-looking creature ; he has also figured the 

 first and second pair of legs, and gives the measurement of the 

 body as 0.40 mm. long and 0.26 nim, broad. It makes a fine 

 object for the microscope when well mounted, and once seen, 

 can never be mistaken for any other Acariis. Mr. A. D. 

 Michael found it in tolerable abundance in Cornwall a good 

 many years ago, and he exhibited it at some of the local 

 societies. Professor Sig Thor of Christiana has also met with 

 it, and a specimen was sent to Mr. Soar, taken in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Edinburgh about three years ago, so that probably 

 it is not ver}- rare, and may be found if carefully looked for ; 

 I believe it has not been before figured in this country, and this 

 is probably its first record for Lincolnshire. 



Fig. 2. — Epicrius geometricus. Canestrini and Fanzago. 



This is another very beautiful mite of the same family, but 

 considerably larger than E. mollis. I found it in 1879 ; a glance 

 at Mr. Soar's drawing will at once show the great difterence in 

 appearance between this mite and the one just described ; the 

 peculiar arrangement of the papillae, by which the dorsum is 

 divided into irregular spaces, like divisions on a map, is well 

 shown on the figure, from which the hairs have been removed ; 



igo6 August I. 



