The genus Chirodiscus, of which C. amplexans is the only species, was said to have come from an Australian bird. It is, however, a listrophorid (Chirodiscinae, of which Atopomelinae is a junior synonym), not an analgoid, and its true host (almost certainly a mammal) and locality remain unknown. The one remaining specimen is figured in detail almost exactly as it survives - only by such a method can the brief original description and the numerous errors of interpretation in a recent redescription be reconciled with the morphology now presented. The case is also a good example of the necessity, since systematics has an historical basis, both to criticize constructively and to admire the studies of classical acarologists, which are, after all, the legal basis of our studies today.