12 The Irish Natu7alisi. January, 



motions were ver}' slow, and, though it made a few fairly 

 rapid swimming movements when placed iu water, it lay as a 

 rule inert on the bottom of the vessel. On the other hand, 

 Chelura prowled freely around the neighbourhood of its 

 wooden domicile, elevating itself on its pow^erful tail pro- 

 cesses, and travelling somewhat in looped caterpillar fashion. 

 Placed in water, it swam gracefully and rapidl}^, by preference 

 on its back. 



Both of these destructive crustaceans live iu wood. Is it 

 quite clear that they live on it? Does timber furnish them 

 with both board and lodging, or with lodging onl)' \ Bate 

 and Westwood sa}- of lyimnoria^ that wood '• evidentl}^ forms its 

 support, as the stomach is found filled with minute ligneous 

 particles." No authority is given for this statement, and so 

 far as I can discover no similar statement has been made with 

 regard to Chelura. Thompson appears to have found onl}' 

 Limnoria in Belfast Bay. Has Chelura since been found 

 there, separately or in association with Limnoria % 



Though the claims of Chelura and Limnoria to be regarded 

 as long-established residents of Kingstown Harbour are 

 beyond all question, it is otherwise with the more formidable 

 wood-borer, the Ship-worm, Teredo 7iorvegica. There seems 

 to be only one record of the occurrence of this mollusc in 

 Co. -Dublin, the record of Thompson,^ where we have the 

 following entry : — '' Teredo noyvagica^ Spengler — 1847, Kings- 

 town Harbour, Dr. Ball." Whether Dr. Ball procured his 

 specimens in old ships' timbers, in drift wood, or in harbour 

 piles it is not possible to decide, and so the following 

 account of the occurrence of Teredo as an undoubted in- 

 habitant of Kingstown Harbour will, no doubt, be of con- 

 siderable interest to students of the Dublin mollusca. 



In the autumn of 1906 I observed a portion of what was 

 obviousl}' a Teredo tube in an old pile \y\\\% on Carlisle Pier. 

 The tube was about six inches long by a half inch in breadth, 

 but as both extremities were wanting it was impossible to 

 determine the .species. When examining the old crustacea- 

 riddled piles in the harbour yard in October last, I asked the 



1 Op. lit., vol. ii., p. 353. 



^ " Natural History of Ireland," vol. iv. 



