134 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



where a specimen is described, the specimen itself will be 

 exhibited to you. 



It will be necessary to go back a few years and notice my first 

 collection of marine life. When I was living at Warrnambool, 

 and during my collecting tours on the beach, I found two 

 species of Hydrozoa — viz., Sertularia bispmosa and S. trispi?iosa. 

 At the time I did not know that these species were rare, and was 

 quite ignorant of the interest attaching to them. Although the 

 coasts of Australia have been well searched by Messrs. W. M. 

 Bale, C. Maplestone, and several others, as also by the collec- 

 tors employed by the Australian Museum at Sydney, and later 

 still by the renowned Dr. Lendenfeld, not one of them ever 

 collected these species. Mr. Bale, in a paper read before the 

 Royal Society of Victoria in August last, and recently printed, 

 remarked : — "A specimen of this species was collected by Mr. 

 H. Watts at Warrnambool many j^ears since. It has not been 

 recorded from any other Australian locality." The occurrence 

 of finding these species happened just 25 years ago — rather 

 long to wait for an acknowledgment of services performed a 

 quarter of a century since. I have here the two specimens — 

 one set on paper, and another set mounted on glass in balsam. 

 With regard to recent collections of Hydrozoa, it has already 

 been announced to the club, and published in this month's 

 Naiaralist, that I have been successful in finding a new species, 

 and Mr. Bale has been kind enough to name it after me as 

 Plumularia Wattsii. I will not detain you over my collections 

 of Bryozoa. Professor M'Coy, in his " Prodromus of the 

 Natural History of Victoria," tells you, much better than I can 

 tell you, of my services in the past, of many species as yet only 

 collected by me. 



With regard to insect life, I have added the knowledge of 

 two species quite new to Australia. One species is referred to 

 the Collemhola, and the other to the Oribaiidcc. The Collembola 

 are an obscure order of insect life, very minute, and of the 

 same order as the Lepisma or spring tail. They are covered 

 with minute club-shaped hairs, and some are covered with 

 scales of extreme beauty. 



The other specimen belongs to the Oribatidm. These insects 

 form a portion of the sub-family of Acarina — a very numerous 

 family, and of very varied appearance. This insect was found 

 in damp moss, in the fern gully near Berwick, when I was in 

 company with a few members of our club. 



Not succeeding in obtaining sufficient information in the 

 colony, I resolved to send them to England to competent 

 authorities on the subject. The former was sent to Sir John 

 Lubbock, who has written specially on these insects. In a very 



