of the Acarine Family Oribatidae. 
533 
are not parasitic on animals like the Ixodiclae and Sarcoptidae, nor 
have they any stage similar to the “ hypopial nymph ” of the 
Tyroglyphidae for the purpose of temporary attachment to insects, 
nor can they travel by balloons of their own spinning like many of 
the spiders. Moreover they do not infest houses or food-stuffs or 
merchandise, and are not at all likely to be conveyed by ships. 
Indeed, if the moss is collected well away from human dwellings, 
in the bush or the jungle, there can be no question of the casual 
introduction of creatures so small and so slow moving. Finally, 
their very local distribution in England seemed to indicate that 
they are slow to spread to new areas. 
The adult mites are certainly tenacious of life and not easily 
killed ; yet they are difficult creatures to rear in captivity because 
the larvae and nymphs always die unless the degree of moisture in 
their cells is carefully regulated. 
We have not yet carried the experiment of importing moss very 
far, and a few consignments have been quite useless, either because 
the moss was collected too dry or because the senders were so 
zealous as to saturate it with formalin for its better preservation, 
but the few localities from which satisfactory material — or at least 
material containing some living mites — has been received are so 
widely scattered that the results are interesting, comprising 
as they do : The Sikkim Himalaya at an altitude of about 6000 ft.; 
Madagascar; S. Nigeria; Uganda; Madeira; Canada; British 
Guiana. We have also examined a few Oribatidae received by 
Dr Sharp from Hawaii. It may be said at once that the results 
were not at all what was anticipated. There was a remarkable 
similarity in the mites wherever they came from, and greatly 
aberrant forms were distinctly rare. From all localities there 
were specimens indistinguishable from well known British species, 
and most of such as were new were closely allied to those already 
known. Take the case of the Himalaya material, upon which 
Mr N. D. F. Pearce has reported in a paper in the Journal of the 
Royal Microscopical Society (1906, p. 269). It was found to 
contain twenty species, distributed among twelve genera, and 
twelve of these species were British. It was only found necessary 
to create one new genus, Chaunoproctus, to include two species not 
very remarkable, but somewhat intermediate between the two 
existing genera Gepheus and Tegeocranus. Nowin view of the fact 
that there is not, as far as I am aware, a single spider common to 
England and India, this result was surely somewhat astonishing. 
The British species from the Himalaya were : 
Pelops acromios , Oribata ovalis, 0. a lata, Gepheus ocellatus, 
Liaccirus palmicinctus, Notaspis tibialis, N. similis, Tegeocranus 
velatus, Hermcinnia convexa, H. bistriata, Cymbaeremeus cymba, 
Nothrus tectorum. 
35—2 
