George : Some British EariJunites. 



335 



and is bag shaped, the whole organ is ver}^ hairy. Figure h 

 represents one of these compound hairs. Mr. Soar gives the 

 length of the whole organ as about 0.56 mm. 



The eyes are two in number, and very peculiar. Figure e 

 shews one of them detached, and enlarged. They are petiolated, 

 and have two ocelli on the distal end, only one of which is shewn 

 in the figure. The legs are all rather short, the front ones being 

 slightly the longest, and their terminal joint is somewhat club 

 shaped ; the end joint of each leg is provided with two large 

 and powerful claws. The posterior part or body of the mite is 

 almost square in outline, a little longer than broad, with the 

 angles rounded ; the front border is almost straight, and rather 

 longer than the back one, which is also slightly emarginate in 

 the centre. The back is rather fiat, and wrinkled more or less. 

 These wrinkles are not uniform, but can be varied by the creature 

 during life. The skin is thickly covered with hairs or papillae 

 of a beautiful and complicated structure, and of two or three 

 distinct patterns, those on the dorsum and outer edges are more 

 or less clubbed at their extremity, and, as a rule, more or less 

 curved, see figure /. They are also finely pectinated, and 

 spring from a short tubular process. Figure c represents these 

 hairs less highly magnified, and drawn from a Balsam mounted 

 specimen, whilst d, is drawn from similar hairs dry, and not 

 mounted in any medium, the pectination of their stalks being 

 more distinctly seen. Figure g represents the hairs or papillae 

 from the front, and under part of the body. These hairs 

 will repay careful examination with a microscope power of 

 \ inch. The genital aperture is longer than the anal, and is 

 provided with six copulatory discs within the aperture, three 

 on each side. Every portion of the mite deserves careful 

 examination under the microscope, and several interesting 

 slides may be obtained by its dissection. Professional mounters 

 sometimes prepare the creature entire, but such slides (though 

 beautiful and not without their use) are apt to give a wrong 

 impression of the creature, because the pressure used distorts 

 and misplaces the different organs. Perhaps where only a 

 single slide is desired, the easiest and most useful plan is (after 

 the mite has been killed and kept in preservative solution for 

 a few days), to divide it into two portions with a lancet or 

 small, sharp knife, the anterior part to carry the two first pair 

 of legs and other organs, and the posterior, the two last pair of 

 legs, and the genital and anal openings. Then carefully squeeze 



1908 September i 



