136 Miscellaneous. 



" Can the striated upper-lip have anything to do with the noise ? 

 for certainly, when Corixa chirped, it seemed to move rapidly its 

 fore- feet across its forehead ; but in the other noise it moved its 

 body from side to side. The head seems to be nearly hollow, and 

 the thorax is so different from other insects, a pin can be easily in- 

 troduced under it. There are queer little plaits on the under- surface 

 of Corixa. 



" The grinding sound may be imitated by blowing the breath 

 against the closed teeth, gently shaking the head while doing so. 



"When one of the Corixee died, the contents of its body were 

 speedily sucked out by one of its companions. — In August 1844 had 

 some alive, but could not hear any noise from them." 



rON THE HABITS OF DISPOTEA CUP AND SAUCER LIMPETS. 

 I have recently received from my nephew, Lieut. William Smith of 

 H.M.S. Carysfort, a collection of specimens oi Dispotea, which show 

 the great changes that shell undergoes according to the form and the 

 position of the body to which it happens to be attached. 



No. 1. The most remarkable specimen is more than an inch and a 

 quarter in diameter, which was attached to the inner surface of one 

 of the valves of a Venus shell ; it is of a white colour with oblique 

 purple-brown rays ; the three rays nearest the internal cup are the 

 broadest ; the apex is nearly central, slightly twisted from right to 

 left, and not more than five lines high. The darkest rays are towards 

 the umbo of the shell ; its surface is covered with distant short tu- 

 bular spines. 



No. 2. is a flat specimen, very like the former, but rather darker 

 and with similar brown rays : the shell is covered with minute, 

 rather crowded spines, but it has had its margin broken, and the 

 part which has been reproduced round the edge to repair the injury 

 is thinner, less convex, and without any spines. 



No. 3. is a specimen which was attached to a Cardium ; it is dark 

 brown, rather thick, very minutely spinulose, much higher than wide 

 at the base, where it is compressed ; on the side opposite to the in- 

 ternal appendage are diverging cross-ridges formed by the adaptation 

 of the margin of the shell as it was enlarged to the ribbed surface of 

 the Cardium. 



No. 4. is very similar to the preceding, and i^ attached to the 

 outside of one valve of a Cardita ; it is equally pick, dark brown, 

 and the surface closely spinulose, but the shell i^not so much mo- 

 dified by the ribs of the Cardita, which only leave marks on the 

 side near the internal appendage ; but then the animal, just within 

 the margin of the shell, has removed the ribs from the surface of the 

 bivalve, leaving a white concave ring the shape of the Dispotea, 

 It is to be remarked, that in this shell and the variety next to be de- 

 scribed, the animal has affixed itself, so that the edge of its shell is 

 quite close to the lower or ventral edge of the bivalve. The greater 

 part of the side of this Dispotea, next to the lower side of the bivalve, 

 is occupied by a smaller Dispotea, similar in thickness, colour and 

 surface, considering its size, to the one on which it is attached, but 



