ACARI FROM NEW ZEALAND. 137 



Abdomen not longer than its width ; it has a squarish effect, but all its sides 

 are more or less rounded, the hind margin being the most so. The principal 

 feature o£ the species is a pair o£ large and remarkable sheets of thin trans- 

 lucent chitin (the pteromorphse) which form wing-like projections from the 

 anterior margin of the abdomen near the lateral corners. These chitinous 

 projections are one-third the length of the whole body of the creature, and 

 are nearly three times as long as their own greatest width ; where they start 

 from the abdomen each projection has a width about equal to one-third of 

 that of the abdomen ; they, however, suddenly narrow and then widen again, 

 and eventually narrow again almost to a point ; they also curve forward and 

 downward ; their edges are somewhat turned upward, and the whole projection 

 is slightly twisted, like half a turn of a screw ; the form thus produced is 

 complicated and will be best understood from the drawing. They cross above 

 the femora and genuals of the second pair of legs and project between that 

 pair and the first *. In the centre of the hind-margins are two small, 

 chitinous, conical projections close together ; each bears a short hair curved 

 inward. There is a row of about twelve thick, slightly-curved, rod-like hairs 

 rather nearer the periphery than the centre of the notogaster. 



Ventral surface. The tectopedia are large, conspicuous, and complicated. 

 There is a large, chitinous, tooth-like projection between the first and second 

 legs, and a smaller one on the ventral side below the second femur. The 

 third and fourth coxse are sunk in depressions of the ventral plate. The 

 genital plates are placed far forward and are trapezoidal, narrowest posteriorly; 

 the anal plates much larger, and of an unequal diamond-shape with curved 

 sides. 



Habitat. Several specimens from Fielding (J. W. Baker's collection). 



NOTASPIS SPINULOSAf, sp. n. (PI. 18. figs. 5-10.) 



Average length about 



breadth . „ 



length of legs, 1st pair ... „ 



„ ,, 2nd „ . . . „ 



,, ,, orcl „ . . . ,, 



55 55 '^tn „ . . . ,j 



Colour chestnut-brown of medium depth. 

 Texture polished, but not very highly so for the genus. 

 Cephalothorax of medium size, not much more than a third of the length of 



* This form of tlie pteromorplia, confined entirely to the anterior margin of the abdomen, 

 is extremely rare ; indeed, the only instance at all approaching the present species in this 

 respect which I know of is O. gilvipes, C. L. Koch, The two species might possibly form 

 a subgenus. 



t Sjnnnlosus, covered with little spines (Modern Latin). 



