224 



acarians from australian and tasmanian 

 Ants and Ant-nests. 



By Nathan Banks. 

 (Communicated by Arthur M. Lea.) 



[Read July 13, 1916.] 



Plates XXIII. to XXX. 



The myrmecophilous mites collected by Mr. Lea in 

 Tasmania and Australia were sent me for determination and 

 description several years ago. 



Some of the specimens are immature and cannot now be 

 determined ; most of the adult specimens prove to be new 

 species. This is not strange, as very few mites of these 

 families have been described from these regions, and these 

 few not from ant-nests. 



There is little generically remarkable in the collection ; 

 they are such as might be found in ant-nests in other 

 countries. Only a few of them were attached to the ants; 

 the others are largely scavengers, but nevertheless will doubt- 

 less be found to be rather closely confined to ant-nests, and 

 not generally distributed or with other environments. The 

 myrmecophilous mites of few regions outside of Europe are 

 known, and Mr. Lea deserves much praise for his industry 

 and attention in gathering such a number of these tiny and 

 generally-neglected creatures. As to host-relation, Ectatomma 

 metallicum is host to seven species of mites; Pan era J idea and 

 Polyrachis he.racantha each have six species; one mite occurs 

 with four species of ants, but nearly all the others have but 

 one host. 



BDELLIDAE. 



Bdella (Sctrus) hospita, n. sp. 

 PI. xxiii., fig. 4. 

 Body about twice as long as broad, broadly rounded 

 behind, tapering in front; beak about two-thirds as long as 

 width of body, with four hairs each side. Palpus with first 

 and last joint about equal in length, and each about as long 

 as the beak, second and third joints very short, subequal, 

 last joint with long hairs on tips and apical half or more, 

 few hairs on other joints. Cephalothorax with one eye 

 each side. Dorsum of abdomen with few fine, scarcely-visible 

 hairs. Legs of moderate length, femur 4 hardly as long 



