266 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



male mite of this species, but the genital plates 

 are so different from any other species of this 



Fig. 13, C. longipalpis. — Genital area of male. 



genus that I do not think a mistake can be made 

 in its identity. 



Mr. Scourfield forwarded me, in 1896, for inspec- 

 tion, the first two 

 females of this 

 species I had 

 seen. Dr. George 

 has forwarded me 

 several since then, 

 but I do not think 

 it is at all a com- 

 mon species. I 

 have only taken 

 one female myself. 



Dr. George found and mounted a specimen of this 

 mite five years before it was described by 

 Krendowsky, but the information possessed then 

 was so small that it was not thought to be an 

 undescribed species. C. longipalpis is no doubt the 

 largest mite of this genus. 



Fig. 14, C. longipalpis.— Last two joints of third pair of legs. 



III. — Curvipes uncatus Koenike, 1887. 



Female. — Body oval (figs. 15, 16). 

 about 2-So mm. Width about 210 mm. 



Length 

 Colour, 



a bright red. This looks very conspicuous sur- 

 rounded by the brown patches. In fig. 16 I show 

 an outline drawing of the dorsal surface, showing 

 the arrangement of the dermal glands. 

 Eyes, a dark red. 



Legs, about same as shown in fig. 2, but not 

 so long in proportion to size of body. First leg 

 about 1-84 mm.; the fourth leg about 2-65 mm.; 

 the others in between those sizes. The colour of 

 all the legs is a slaty blue-grey. I do not see 

 sufficient difference in the structure of the legs 

 to require another drawing. 



Epimera. — Arrangement is shown in fig. 15. It 

 very much like fig. 2, but smaller in proportion 

 to the size of the ventral surface. The posterior 

 plates also look much wider apart ; but this is not 

 of any importance, because it often depends on the 

 actual development of the body of the female. As 



the body swells 

 the epimera get 

 wider apart. The 

 colour is the same 

 as all chitinous 

 parts of this mite, 

 a slaty blue. 



Palpi about 

 o'88 mm. long. It 

 is in this part 

 that the greatest 

 difference will be seen to distinguish C. uncatus 

 from the two mites previously described. A side 

 view of both C. nodatus and C. longipalpis shows 

 only three points, or three pegs (see fig. 5), but in 

 C. uncatus Koenike, on the inner side of the last 

 joint but one of the palpi, five pegs can be seen 

 at a, fig. 17. 



Genital plates are so much like the plates of 

 C. nodatus (fig. 6) that I do not think another figure 

 is necessary. The discs vary, as is usual in the 





y ^ 



Fig. 15, C. uncatus.— Ventral 

 surface of female. 



Fig. 17, C. uncatus.— Palpi. 



Fig. 16, C. uncatus.— Dorsal 

 surface of female. 



yellow, with dark-brown markings, and a T-shaped species of this genus ; one I have just counted has 

 piece in the centre of the dorsal surface, which is twenty-five on one side and twenty on the other. 



