676 MR JAMES MURRAY 



outside it (Plate II. fig. 9a). The eggs and tubes were empty, but in Scotland the 

 living parasite has been seen infesting the body of the Tardigrade. 



The species attacked appear to be undescribed. The pharynx (fig. 9c) has three 

 rods, of which the middle one is shorter. This is a rare arrangement, only known in 

 M. augusti, which has much more slender rods and differs in other respects. Carpenter's 

 Rock, Franz Josef Land. 



M. hnfelandii, C. Sch. (14). — A cosmopolitan species. The egg is supposed to vary 

 considerably, but I expect the most aberrant varieties to prove permanent races, if not 

 species. There is a circlet of radiating lines round the base of each process. One form 

 in Franz Josef Land lacked this circlet. According to Richters, the egg producing the 

 simplex form has the processes closer set. 



M. intermedins, Plate (9). — Only found in Franz Josef Land. No eggs were seen, but 

 Richters has observed them in Spitsbergen, and they are occasionally found in Scotland. 



M. echinogenitus, Richters (11). — Probably as widely distributed as M. hufelandii. 

 The eggs vary greatly. The spines are usually acuminate, and are close together at the 

 bases. They may be short or long, and may be widely separated at the bases. Some 

 other species have very similar eggs, so that it is unsafe to identify from the egg alone, 

 unless it contains a well-developed young. 



Var. areolatus, var. nov. (Plate II. figs. 14« to \Ad) : — 



Distinctive Characters. — Of large size, up to 800m- Eggs very large, up to 180/x 

 over spines, or 95m without spines ; spines papillose, separated at the bases, the inter- 

 mediate surface of the shell marked with irregular polygonal spaces, symmetrically 

 arranged. The claws are united for a short distance at the base. The pharynx has 

 three narrow rods, nearly equal, and no comma. Claws of largest examples 40m long ; 

 fat-cells up to 15m long. 



Spitsbergen and Franz Josef Land ; also known from mountain tops in Shetland, 

 and the mainland of Scotland, the Himalaya, etc. 



After the characters of the egg, the most striking difference is the absence of comma 

 in the pharynx. Many young have been seen to issue from eggs. The teeth are not 

 acicular, but broad and lance-shaped at the ends. Each long claw has two supple- 

 mentary points. 



M. dispar, Murray (7). — It is only recently that this species has been distinguished 

 from M. macronyx. The rare spiny egg has been seen within a cast skin from Prince 

 Charles Foreland. The dorsal conical processes, which have nowhere been found so 

 largely developed as in Loch Tay in Scotland, were fairly large in a skin found among 

 moss growing on an ancient walrus skull at an elevation of over 400 feet in Franz 

 Josef Land. 



M. ambiguus, Murray (8). — Another species closely resembling M. macronyx, and 

 only recently recognised as distinct. Though very similar to M. dispar, it has a very 

 different egg, much larger (diameter over spines 132m), with larger spines, like those of 

 some forms of M. echinogenitus, touching at the bases. 



