14 Messrs Warburton and Pearce, Note on a Collection, etc. 
was tightly packed and the tins soldered up. On arrival, the 
moss was found to be teeming with life, and no fewer than forty 
species of Oribatidae new to science were collected from it. 
This is the more striking inasmuch as the well-established species 
already recognised do not number more than two hundred and 
fifty. We are not at present ready with a detailed report on 
these new forms, some of which are of extreme interest and will 
necessitate the suppression of one accepted genus — Phthiracarus 
— and the establishment of more than one new genus. 
The importance of receiving the mites in a living condition 
is not only due to the better preservation of the specimens 
obtained, but also to the fact that it renders possible the use 
of Berlese’s apparatus for the collection of minute insects and 
arachnids from the material in which they live. In this ingenious 
contrivance the creatures are induced, by the application of heat, 
to desert the moss or other material and to fall into a vessel 
prepared for their reception, with the result that a very large 
proportion of the creatures present are captured w 7 ith an immense 
saving of labour. 
