Clare Island Survey — Arctiscoida. 37 7 



Macrobiotus oecidentalis Murray. (Plate III., fig. 14.) 



Habitat. — Westport, several examples. 



Irish examples did not show the rectangular plates, floating in clear fluid 

 between two layers of skin, as in Canada. No eggs were found. The species 

 is recognized from the dotted skin, and the characters of pharynx and claws. 



It was ascertained that the dots are arranged in pairs, forming longi- 

 tudinal, and probably also transverse, rows. The larger paired dots appear 

 elliptical or almond-shaped. 



Herr Thulin, of Lund, has just found the species and eggs in Sweden. 



Distribution. — Australia, Hawaii Canada, Sweden, Ireland. 



Macrobiotus areolatus Murray. 



Apparently rare in Ireland, where it is replaced by M. richtersii. Only 

 eggs were seen, in a tarn at about 1,000 feet on Slievemore, Achill. 



Macrobiotus richtersii sp. n. (PL III., figs. 13a-13h.) 



Specific characters. — Large, strongly pigmented; no eyes. Teeth thick; 

 gullet very wide ; three narrow rods in pharynx, and a small " comma" distant 

 from the last rod. Claws of hufelandii-type, joined for half the length of the 

 longer one, which has two supplementary points. Processes of egg conical, 

 truncate, and slightly expanded at apex ; egg-surface between the processes 

 areolate. 



Length 750 to l.OOOju. Gullet about 16/x in width. Pharynx shortly oval, 

 80;u in length ; first and second rods about four times as long as broad, third 

 five times as long. The pattern on the egg-surface is symmetrical, and consists 

 of obscure polygons, which appear to have originated as regular hexagons, 

 each divided by a partition into two equal pentagons. The processes are 

 faintly papillose; the expansion of the apex varies in amount, and it is 

 bordered by a circlet of papillae. The egg measures 120^ over the processes, 

 75/x without them. 



M. richtersii is closely related to M. areolatus, which is distinguished by the 

 pointed processes of the egg, the claws united at the base only, the absence of 

 comma in the pharynx, and the possession of eyes. 



Habitat. — Among Hylocomium squarrosum from the salt marsh at 

 Kinnacorra, Clare Island, collected by G. H. Wailes, March, 1911. 



Though it had not been described, the species was previously known, and 

 had been found in many places — Loch Morar, Scotland (1904) ; Uganda 

 (N D. P. Pearce, 1906) ; Pretoria, Transvaal (Hewitt, 1910). 



