THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



No. 128. JUNE 1847. 



XXXVIII. — Biological Contributions. By George J. Allman, 

 M.B., F.R.C.S.I., M.R.I.A., Professor of Botany in Trinity 

 College, Dublin, late Demonstrator of Anatomy and Conser- 

 vator of the Anatomical Museum, T. C. D. 



[With two Plates.] 



[Continued from vol. xvii. p. 419.] 



No. II. On Chelura terebrans, Philippij an Amphipodous 

 Crustacean destructive to submarine timber-works *. 



In January last, my friend Professor Oldham placed in my hands 

 for examination a small crustacean discovered in great numbers 

 by M. B. Mullins, Esq., C.E., in perforations formed in the tim- 

 ber-piles of the jetty in the harbour of Kingstown near Dublin. 



The little animal was totally unknown to me, and believing it 

 to belong to even a generic form hitherto unrecorded, I lost no 

 time in submitting it to a careful examination, and having had 

 at my disposal abundance of living specimens, I drew up a full 

 description of the supposed new genus, and made drawings of its 

 details with a view to immediate publication. 



My memoir on the Crustacean was thus completed and ready 

 for the printer, when Mr. Thompson of Belfast directed my at- 

 tention to a description of a new genus of Amphipods given by 

 Philippi in Wiegmann's ' Archiv,' 1839, and translated into the 

 fourth volume of the ' Annals of Natural History.' 



In my search for some published record of the timber-destroy- 

 ing Crustacean, I had overlooked Philippics memoir, and yet here 

 was to be found a description of the very animal to which I had 

 devoted many hours^ careful examination. It is true that neither 

 Philippics description nor drawings will apply in every particular 

 to the Irish specimens, but yet I would feel rather disposed to 

 consider the discrepancy as the result of certain slight errors in 

 the memoir of the excellent naturalist who has the honour of the 



♦ Read before the Royal Irish Academy, April 12, 1847. 

 Ann. ^ Mag, N. Hist, Fc//. xix. 26 



