388 Transactions of the Society. 



further, for the exo skeleton of the abdomen is decidedly segmented, 

 and in the species now described the segments are capable of a 

 certain amount of telescopic extension and retraction, and in con- 

 nection ^Yith this it has a power of erecting the spines on its back 

 (which are usually horizontal) as a porcupine does. I am not 

 aware of this power existing in any other species of Oribatidai. 



Another curious new species is that which 1 propose to call 

 Bamxus tenuipes. The adult of this creature carries the cast 

 notogastral skins, but they are not, as in Cepheus hifidatus, above 

 referred to, extended nearly flat on the back : on the contrary, the 

 abdomen is nearly globular, and the cast notogastral skins retain 

 their hemispherical shape, so that they form a pile on the back, 

 like a diminishing series of dish-covers. These being very thin 

 require some support, and they receive it in an odd way. From 

 the centre of the dorsal shield of the abdomen of the adult arises a 

 chitinous, spine-like process, which is erect, and just touches the 

 lowest cast skin ; from exactly above it on that skin arises a similar 

 spine, which supports the second skin, and so on ; thus these spines 

 form a supporting column in the centre of the pile. They are 

 never seen except the skin is pulled off or rendered transparent. 

 There is not any spine on the larval skin, which, being the top, has 

 not anything to support. 



Cepheus bifidatus. 

 Nymph. 



This singular and beautiful creature is decidedly of the type of 

 the nymph of Tegeocranus latus, but the spines bordering the 

 abdomen are far longer and more slender, and the processes from 

 which they spring are smaller, and different in form. 



Colour very light buff or drab, almost white. Legs and rostrum 

 light pink-brown. Texture granular, rough. Form elliptical, the 

 edge brolcen by the granulation. 



Kostrum blunt-pointed. Cephalothorax small, conical. Pseudo- 

 stigmata dorsal ; pseudo-stigmatic organs setiform, serrated spines. 

 Inter-lamellar hairs similar ; rostral hairs short and simple. Legs 

 short, of about even thickness throughout, joints rough ; tactile 

 hairs on all legs ; a whorl of thin curved hairs on each of the cen- 

 tral joints of the two front pairs of legs, a few similar hairs on the 

 hind legs. 



Abdomen elliptical, notogaster flat, ventral surface arched. 

 Notogaster stands much above cephalothorax. Cast notogastral 

 skins carried flat on the back. The larval skin forms a central 

 shield and the uymphal skins almost concentric rings bordering it, 

 but each skin is usually a trifle in advance of that below it. The 

 larval skin is arched and bordered by about seventeen thin, curved, 



