CHEESE MITES, ETC. 



273 



CASE batteries. The present was one of the species so dignified, and 

 it for some time enjoyed an ephemeral fame as a human creation. 

 It was sent to M. TuqDin in Paris (then one of the experts in 

 knowledge of Acari), and, notwithstanding that he had only a single 

 dead specimen in spirits to work from, he (erroneously as it after- 

 wards turned out) determined it to be new, and described and 

 figured it under the name of Acarus horridus (Comptes Rendus, 

 1837). But although he considered it to be new, he by no means 

 endorsed the idea that it was created by Mr. Cross, or his elec- 

 trical apparatus. It was not only a highly organised animal, and 

 nearly alHed to well-known species, but it proved to be a female 

 containing eggs, which, as he dryly remarked, seemed an unneces- 

 sary complication in a new creation. Turpin's figure was not a 

 very good one, as the reader will see from the copy of it that we 

 give. It bore to be a fac-simile, and the specimen having been 



Copy of Turpin"s figure of Acarus horridus, 

 found by Mr. Cross. 



Acarus, found by Mr. Weekes. Copied from 

 figure in Smee's work on Instinct. 



put out of shape by immersion in spirits, it appeared distorted 

 and uncharacteristic. Gervais afterwards, misled by the length 

 and strengtli of the hairs figured on its body, did not discern that 

 it was actually a species described by himself (the present), but 

 took it to be a Glyciphagus, although there was no trace of the 



