118 DUBLIN NATTJUAL HISTOBT SOCIETY. 



I submit the fact for the consideration of the Society, leaving it for 

 them to determine the interesting question as to whether the heath 

 flowers were in reality nourished and bloomed by the juices of the Dodder, 

 or only kept alive by the moisture of its succulent tendrils. 



I trust I may be excused for bringing this circumstance under the 

 notice of the Society. If the ** Rape of the Lock" was a sufficient theme 

 for Pope, surely a naturalist may be excused for noticing the abduction 

 of this pretty little flower by one of the wild denizens of Dartmoor, espe- 

 cially as the robber is the more worthy of consideration, from the care 

 he took of his beautiful protege. 



Pkofessor Kinahan, M.D., read a paper — 



ON THE GENUS SCORPIONURA (j. V. THOMPSON, MSS.). 



In the fourth volume of the "Natural History of Ireland," by W. 

 Thompson, are recorded, by name only, three species of decapodous Crus- 

 tacea, under the names of Scorpionura vulgaris, Scorp. maxima, and Scorp. 

 longicornis. No description of this genus having been ever published, it 

 is a matter of some moment to identify the species thus named, and which 

 now exist in the collection of the Hoyal Dublin Society. I, therefore, 

 gladly avail myself of the kind permission of our Honorary Member, 

 Charles Spence Bate, T. L. S., to lay before you to-night the results to 

 which he has arrived on examination of these specimens, and at the same 

 time beg to record a locality for one of the species in the neighbourhood 

 of Dublin. I prefer this course to myself drawing up any description of 

 the species, as Mr. Spence Bate has already so thoroughly studied the 

 family (the Diastylidae), to which these species are referable, as to render 

 it presumptuous on my part to oifer any remarks on the structure of 

 the animals. 



My object in this communication is confined to proving, through the 

 identification of these specimens, that the genus thus named by the late 

 J. V. Thompson must be erased from our lists, the species composing it 

 falling under the following genera: — Diastylis {Say), Cyrianassa {Sp. 

 Bate), and a new genus for which Mr. Spence Bate suggests the name 

 of Vaunthompsonia. At one time Mr. Spence Bate thought of retaining 

 the name Scorpionura for this last genus ; but that name being already 

 pre -occupied, he has thought it better to call the genus after the disco- 

 verer of the Irish species. 



It is extremely interesting to find among this collection-^-probably 

 among the great haul made on the 28th April, 1823 — several specimens 

 of females with ova, showing that their observer was aware of these being 

 adult forms, and adding another to the species recorded by Spence Bate 

 as bearing this strong proof of these being mature, and not, as has been 

 stated by some of our best authorities, the zoes of some of the Macroura. 

 I have extracted Mr. Bate's communication and figures in extenso from the 

 *' Journal of the Royal Dublin Society," before whose evening meeting of 

 the 28th May it was read. 



