390 Mr. W. Thompson's Additions to the Fauna of Ireland, 



they were somewhat hyaline. They each possessed eight eyes, which 

 changed their places like objects in a kaleidoscope ; their usual 

 position was, the four anterior in a straight line across the S~\ 

 body, and so tliey always appeared when the anterior portion [•••' 

 of the body was pressed against the phial in the act of pro- I" " 

 gression : the hinder pairs of eyes generally appeared as here repre- 

 sented, or across the body, but occasionally displayed them- 

 selves in the opposite direction thus, and the anterior eyes H 

 were then seen as figured, the head of the creature at the I" "I 

 same time having quite a truncated aspect. Of several species of 

 " Hirudinees " brought from L. Neagh and kept alive for a few 

 weeks*, this was the only one that had the power of swimming ; it 

 was extremely active, and wriggled about through the water like an 

 Ammoccetes — it was truly " as merry as a grig." 



August 20, 1846. — Among the Hydrce, &c. alluded to under P/a- 

 naria nigra as brought from the Phoenix Park, Dublin, w T as an indi- 

 vidual of this species : — the water from which it was taken for exa- 

 mination today had been kept unchanged for three months in a large 

 glass globe. 



Glossiphonia Eachana, Thompson. 



Specific Character. — " Body oval ; anterior portion not dilated into 

 a distinctly-formed head ; back smooth ;" margin slightly crenu- 

 late ; eyes eight ; stomachal lobes eight, subpinnate ; prevailing 

 hue hyaline. 



The size commonly extends to 9 lines. The eight eyes are dis- 

 posed in four pairs, each pair on the same segment of the body, the 

 two hinder pairs the larger ; eight pair stomachal lobes anterior to 

 great stomachal pouches, subpinnate — as much so as represented in 

 G. marginata, Moq.-Tandon, pi. 14. f. 14. 2nd edit. — the two anterior 

 pair are small, and when empty but little apparent ; from each side of 

 the stomachal lobes emanate four subpinnate branches which appear 

 in a continuous row with the stomachal lobes anterior to the pouches 

 on each side. It may be remarked that the spur -like form of the 

 stomachal pouches (see pi. 13. fig. 6 c & d, Moquin, 2nd edit.) was 

 not always clearly defined, in which state their four branches ap- 

 peared as if issuing directly from the main trunk like the anterior 

 eight pair of lobes. This difference will be understood by a refer- 

 ence to Moquin-Tandon's figure 4. of plate 13 (2nd edit.) repre- 

 senting the ordinary appearance, and his fig. 3. pi. 4 (1st edit.) the 

 latter. Four pair of caeca. Colour — back viewed with a very high 

 magnifying power exhibited about four distinct rows of white spots, 

 with a few smaller spots irregularly interspersed ; but the general 

 aspect was of a glassy transparency of a very pale red tinge, im- 

 parted to it by extremely minute dots of red disposed over the body 

 and disc. This glassy transparency rendered the vessels of the di- 



* In addition to those named in this communication as previously unre- 

 corded, there were Glossiphonia sexoculala, G. bioculata and G. tessel- 

 lata. 



