ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MI0E08COPY, ETC. 509 



even more rudimentary, its representative retaining only the general 

 form of the creature, and having no legs or other external organs. 



Encystation of Glyciphagus.* — M. P. Megnin describes the process 

 of encystation in Glyciplmrjus cursor and spinipes. When extinction 

 appears inevitable the following remarkable life-saving modification was 

 observed. The organs liquefy, their substance forms a gelatinous 

 spherical mass within the body, and this mass becomes enveloped in a 

 cyst. This remains inert, but may be blown about like a seed with the 

 body as a parachute. If it land in favourable environment, rapid seg- 

 mentation and budding occur within the cyst, and a new Glyciphagus 

 emerges. M. Megnin reports a case where myriads of these Acarids 

 appeared very inopportunely from their cysts in a preserved-meat manu- 

 factory, which some years previously had been used for the production 

 of bone buttons. 



New Genus of Hydrachnids.f — Herr F. Koenike describes a new 

 genus of Hessian Hydrachnida, which he calls Teutonia pimaria ; it 

 appears to be allied to Limnesia and Sperchon, and to connect these 

 genera with one another. 



Accidental Parasitism on Man of Tyroglyphus farinse.^ — M. E. 



Moniez deals with the occasional presence on Man of this common 

 Acarid. It was observed at Lille during the handling of wheat imported 

 from Russia and arriving in so dry a state that no kind of fermentation 

 could go on, so that there was no food for the mites. It is j)robable that 

 they were cast into the air, and so reached the skin, where their j^owerful 

 organs enabled them to pierce the skin and suck the fluids beneath. 



Marine Acarina of the Coasts of France.§ — M. Trouessart thinks 

 that the Acarina which are truly marine — the Halacaridae — ought to 

 form a distinct family and not a subfamily of the Trombididae, as, 

 indeed, was proposed by Murray in 1875. The young ajij^ear to be 

 carnivorous and the adults herbivorous in habit. Like many other 

 Acarina, they are parasitic when young, and merely commensals when 

 adult. They thrive well in brackish water, and resist for a long time 

 the iufluence of fresh water. They abound in the coralline zone. In 

 the monograph which M, Trouessart has in preparation seventeen 

 species will be described, while English naturalists have as yet only 

 reported the presence of ten on our coasts ; several of them are, of 

 course, common to the two faunae. 



Marine Hydrachnida. || — Dr. R. v. Schaub has some notes on the 

 generic and specific characters found in Pontarachna, and some observa- 

 tions on the well-known genus Midea He comes to the conclusion that 

 Asperia Lemani (Haller) is the female and Nessea Koenikei (Haller) the 

 male of M. ellijptica (Koenike). 



Morphology and Larvae of Pantopoda. t — Herr G. Adlerz commu- 

 nicates some observations on the morphology and development of the 

 Pantopoda. The first part of his paper deals with the homologies of 



* Journ. Anat. et Physiol. (Eobin), xxv. (1889) pp. 106-10 (1 fig.) 

 t Zool. Anzeig., xii. (1889) pp. 103-4. 



X Comptea Rendus, cviii. (1889) pp. 1026-7. § T. c, pp. 1178-81. 



II SB. K. Akad. Wiss Wien, xcviii. (1889) pp. 163-79 (2 pis.). 

 \ Bihang K. Svenska Vet. Akiid. Handlingar, xiii. No. iv. (1888) 25 pp. (2 pis.) 

 1889. 2 N 



