44 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



I believe Lepfohiyitni py)i forme is tnih' at home 

 on the sand dunes of the Mersey Province, and in the 

 limestone districts of Yorkshire and Derbyshire, but 

 I am more sceptical as to many of the other stations 

 which are recorded. It is somewhat astonishing 

 to see the regularity with which this moss 

 springs up in greenhouses and garden frames. It is 

 evidently brought, often from long distances, with 

 soil about the roots of plants, and in these situations 

 has no more right to be classed as an integral part of 

 the flora, than the stove plants with which it is 

 introduced. Liiiiiilaria vulgaris has a similar 

 predilection for living under glass, as also have 

 Fiinaiia hygronietrica and Pottia tnincatida. 



Mosses found on felled timber brought from a 

 distance are open to suspicion, even when the trunks 



have lain long. Torlula papulosa, otherwise 

 unknown in South Lancashire, and very rare in West 

 Lancashire, was found b)' Mr. Whitehead in such a 

 situation at Ashton-under-Lyne. He ascertained 

 that the tree trunks had been sent from Welshpool, 

 hence the moss cannot be admitted in the South 

 Lancashire vice-comital list. Foreign mosses are 

 often imported on timber, and I have seen fine 

 fruiting specimens of exotic genera, not represented 

 in the British flora, on tree bark in the Mersey 

 dockyards. It does not appear likely that any of 

 these will naturalize themselves in this country, 

 although, given suitability of climate it is easy to 

 imagine the introduction of new species by this 

 method. 



H.M. Prison, Walton, Liverpool. 



BRITISH FRESHWATER MITES. 



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



GENUS TEVTONIA KOENIKE, 1890. 



{^Continjied /rom page 20.) 



npHIS genus, at the time of writing, contains only 

 ■^ one species, which is very closely allied to those of 

 Limnesia. Its characteristics are also the same as 

 Limnesia, with the exception that the three discs on 

 each side of the genital plate are on the inner margin ; 

 whereas in Limnesia they are on the outer. 

 Tetitonia primaria Koenike, 1890. 

 Female. — Body : Oval in form. Length about 

 I -04 mm. Width about 0'96 mm. Colour yellow 

 with brown markings on dorsal and ventral surface. 



posterior plates being more square. Colour yellow, 

 like all the parts of this mite. 



Palpi. — (Fig. 2.) Large and long, being about 

 o'56 mm. in length. The fourth segment is long and 

 slender, with small hairs all along the lower edge. 



Genital Area.— (Fig. 3.) The plates of this 

 mite differ very much from Limnesia. The discs are 

 on the inner edge, and these are covered with a 

 chitinous flap, which is sometimes partly open, as 

 seen in fig. 3. 



Fig. 2. — T. prima r 



Palpi's of female. 



Lecs. — P'irst pair about 0-92 mm. Each pair 

 gradually gets longer, the fourth pair being about 

 I -20 mm. The first and second pair of legs are veiy 

 sparingly supplied with hairs, but the third and 

 fourth pairs have a large number. All the legs 

 gradually taper from the epimera to the ungues. The 

 tarsi of the fourth pair of legs are brought to a point 

 in the same manner as the corresponding segments in 

 the species of Limnesia. Colour of legs yellow. 



Ei'lMiiRA. — (Fig. I.) Arranged in four pairs but 

 of quite a different shape to those of Z/w/«.t/a, the 



Male. — The males are a little smaller than the 

 females. The genital plates (fig. 4) differ slightly 

 from those of the female. It has not the crescent 

 shape piece above the plates which may be obseived 

 on the female. 



Localities. — I have at present only found this 

 mite in two places — Bealings, Suffolk, in 1895, and 

 in North Wales in i8g6. 



Genus Lel>eiiia Neurnan, 1879. 



This is another genus at present containing only 



