BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 235 



Plate II., Fig. 10.) The colour evidently proves them rudimentary, and 

 unsuited for the function of the sense. Along with the larger specimens, 

 others were found in company (Plate XYIIL, Fig. 2, 1), which, besides 

 their inferior size, differed by having shorter antennae, with a stout ter- 

 minal joint, and the thoracic rings less strongly divided : these I take 

 to be younger specimens. Along with these two kinds was found also 

 a third (Fig. 2, c), much smaller, of linear figure, with very short an- 

 tennae, but faint traces of a division of the thoracic segments, and having 

 the end of the abdomen armed with two small hooks. I think it pro- 

 bable that this small kind are the larvae."* 



Of the specimens brought home from the Mitchelstown Caverns, a 

 good number were in excellent preservation, and some were yet alive 

 when brought to Dublin. It was unfortunately found impossible to 

 pay any attention to them until a fortnight had almost passed ; and by 

 that time their bodies were completely dissolved away. A few speci- 

 mens, preserved in alcohol, were therefore all that remained, and these 

 were very carefully examined by Mr. Haliday, who obligingly gave me 

 the following particulars : — 



" The specimens being preserved in alcohol, those who know the 

 fragile and w r atery consistence of insects of this group must be aware 

 that some of the characters of external form, and all those of internal 

 organization, are liable to be somewhat altered or effaced by keeping. 

 Of those few preserved, only one specimenf appeared to be quite mature ; 

 that is, having the antennae nearly as long as the head, and with the 

 last joint longer, indeed, but not thicker than the rest. The majority 

 were in the penultimate state, when the antennae are shorter, with the 

 last joint stouter, and the subdivision of the thoracic segments, as 

 Schiodte states, is less marked. The length of limbs suited his descrip- 

 tion pretty well, but the thoracic segments presented no such strong 

 stricture across the middle (dividing the portions representing scutum 

 and scutellum of each dorsal plate) as Schiodte has described and 

 figured. The anterior part of the mesothorax and metathorax did ap- 

 pear, as in his, broader than the posterior ; but this arose rather from the 

 prominence of the episternal region than from any extraordinary ine- 

 quality in the development of the dorsal region. 



1 ' Accurate as Schiodte has proved himself in regard to those branches 

 of which he has made a particular study, it may be pardonable, in the 

 present instance, to suggest a possibility of error, if not in his observa- 

 tions, yet in the interpretation of them, as affecting the limits of the 

 several thoracic segments, which he seems to have thrown too far back 

 by half a segment in each instance ; at least, such a comparative deve- 

 lopment of the prothorax as he attributes to his Anurophorus is at 

 variance with the usual structure in this family. 



"Another important and more unequivocal difference is that in our 



* "Contribution to the Subterranean Fauna." By J. C. Schiodte. P. 1-39, Plates I.-IV. 

 fVide Plate XVIII., Fig. 1. 



