SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



laboratory, and as a special lecturer has been 

 appointed in that subject it is hoped that Owens 

 College will take a leading part in its develop- 

 ment. 



An electric lift connects the different floors, and 

 will serve principally to convey delicate apparatus 

 from one part of the building to another. There 

 will be a small but well-equipped workshop in 

 which instruments can be repaired or even made. 



The large lecture-room holds, under ordinary 

 circumstances, 210 students. It has a skylight as 

 well as windows looking to the east, and rapidly 

 moving shutters allow the room to be quickly 

 darkened. The small lecture-room serves for ad- 

 vanced lectures, and rooms are provided for storing 

 the ordinary apparatus and also some historical 

 instruments, as, for instance, Joule's valuable ap- 

 paratus, some of which have been presented to the 

 College. Electric current is supplied from sixty 

 storage cells, which are connected through a large 

 switchboard over fifteen feet long. Thirty circuits 



diverge from this switchboard into the various- 

 rooms, the circuits consisting of aluminium or 

 copper wire, stretched principally under the ceiling 

 of each room and passing through specially per- 

 forated bricks in the walls. Uncovered wires have 

 been chosen for the purpose, as the expense is re- 

 duced and much stronger currents can be sent 

 through the same thickness of wire. 



The research-rooms are placed principally in the 

 basement and on the ground floor of the building,, 

 where the greatest steadiness and freedom from 

 disturbance can be obtained, and it is hoped that 

 the unusual facilities which in future will be given 

 at Owens College for original research in physics 

 will attract many students. There is also every 

 reason to hope that the John Hopkinson Electro- 

 technical laboratory, with its adjunct the Electro- 

 chemical laboratory, will soon make itself felt in 

 the education of electrical engineers, who will be- 

 trained to carry out the highest technical work they 

 may be called upon to perform. James Quick. 



BRITISH FRESHWATER MITES. 



By Charles D. Soar, F.R.M.S. 



{Continued from paije 49.) 



GENUS PIOISTOPSIS. 



rnHIS genus is very closely allied to Fiona. It 

 -*- really holds an intermediate position between 

 Curvipes and Piona. In both male and female 

 its characteristics are the same as Piona, except in 

 the males not having the enlarged fourth segment 

 on the fourth pair of legs, which we found in that 

 genus. 



Pionopsis lutcscens Hermann. 



Female. — Oval in shape. Length about 1.44 mm., 

 breadth about 1.02 mm. It is very like the females 

 of Piona. Colour a pale yellow with very dark 

 markings on the dorsal surface, with a bright 

 yellow T-shaped patch in the centre. 



LEGS. — First pair about 1.36 mm. Fourth pair 

 about 1.72 mm. Of a pale blue colour, claw T s to all 

 feet, but the claws on the fourth pair are much 

 smaller than the others. 



Epimera. — In four groups, similar to the females 

 of Curvipes and Piona. 



Palpi. — About 0.40 mm. long. Pale blue in 

 colour. The last two segments are like fig. 2, 

 page 48. 



Genital Area.— Is composed of three discs 

 on each side of the genital fissure, let into 

 special plates like we found in Piona and Litnnesia. 

 but the two posterior discs are side by side, the 

 first one being just above them, not one above the 

 other like those of Fiona ornata (fig. 1, page 48). 



Male. — Length about 0.72 mm., breadth about 

 0.60 mm. In form it is very much like the male 

 of Piona, but it can be easily recognised by the 

 peculiar structure of the fifth segment of the hind 

 leg (fig. 1), which has six stiff bristles in a row - r 

 slightly bent backwards towards the body, in 

 opposition to those we generally find on the legs 

 of water-mites. The length of the fourth leg of 

 the male is about 1.08 mm. Palpi are about 

 0.40 mm., which is the same length as that of the- 

 palpi of the female, but the body of the male being 



Fir;. I. P. lutescens. Fourth leg of male. 



so much smaller than that of the female, gives this 

 mite the appearance of having very large palpi. 



Localities. — Totteridge, Epping Forest, and 

 Norfolk Broads. Not a very common mite. 



GENUS LIMN O CHARES LATREILLE. 



This genus is known by the following character- 

 istics : — Soft-skinned. Legs without swimming 

 hairs. Eyes close together. Small palpi. At 

 present I believe there are only two species known 

 in this genus, the one L. crinita Koenike having 

 been recorded from Madagascar, and L. Itolosericea 



