ACARI FROM NEW ZEALAND. 135 



it is from thence that we now receive this collection containing species whose 

 large size and apparent vigour would indicate at once, to a specialist acquainted 

 with the group, their probable temperate origin ; what he would also notice 

 is that the temperate characteristics seem exaggerated, as i£ they had run wild, 

 giving many o£ the species a very singular appearance. 



I have not thought it necessary to create any new genera ; probably many 

 systematists would have done so. The creature which I propose calling 

 Or'ibata Bostocki is a very remarkable one. The most uncommon feature of 

 this species is that the pteromorphse (chitinous wing-like expansions o£ the 

 abdomen) are confined to the anterior margin o£ the abdomen and point 

 forward, instead of running along the lateral margin of the abdomen and 

 projecting at the sides : this is so rare that the only instance which I am 

 acquainted with is 0. gilvipes, C. L. Koch, a species the capture o£ which is 

 seldom recorded. Some authors would probably think that a genus, or sub- 

 genus, should be founded on this character, making 0. Bostocki the type ; 

 personally I do not think a separate generic or subgeneric name necessary, 

 particularly as 0. Bostocki and 0. gilvipes are very different in other respects, 

 0. gilvipes having the appearance of a typical Oribata, while 0. Bostocki 

 shows certain analogies to Tegeocranus and Carabodes. 



The Trachynotus which I propose calling T. scleropliyllus is in many 

 respects a very remarkable creature, but especially so in the chitinized leaf- 

 shaped appendages which spring from the edge of the abdomen. It is quite 

 common in the Acarina that some of the principal hairs on the body are 

 placed in this situation, and these hairs are visually good specific distinctions, 

 being practically always similar in number, position, and character in all 

 specimens of the same species and sex ; but they vary greatly in different 

 species. It is not by any means unusual for these hairs to have assumed a 

 flattened, leaf-like form, and to consist of a central rhachis, with branched 

 nervures, between which is stretched a transparent flexible membrane ; but 

 for these nervures and the membrane to have become an opaque sheet of 

 brown, rigid chitin, while retaining its leaf -like form and hair-like mode of 

 attachment to the body, is a very exceptional development. 



The species which I propose calling Notlirus cophinarius is an extreme form 

 of that genus, and is another example of the curious and varied modes in 

 which some adult Oribatidse carry portions of the cast skins of the nymph ; 

 and that which I am calling Notaspis spinulosa has the serrated hairs on the 

 notogaster carried to a development greatly in excess of anj^thing hitherto 

 known in the family. 



I am not able to give as much detail of parts dissected off as I usually 

 like to do in drawings of new species, but the specimens I have are all 

 mounted in balsam, and those in preservative liquid which Mr. Bostock 

 had provided for dissection were unfortunately destroyed in a fire which 

 occurred after his death. 



11* 



