1908. Proceedings of Irish Societies. 63 



DUBLIN MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 



January 8.— The Club met at Leiiister House — Dr. G. H. Pethy- 

 BRIDGE (Vice-President) in the chair. 



R. Southern exhibited a specimen of the tubicolous polychaete 

 worm, Pectinaria auricoma (Miill), together with its tube. The distin- 

 guishing characters of this species are the curvature of the tube, and 

 the frilled margin of the peristomium. The specimen was obtained by 

 Mr. Colgan, in July, 1907, in five fathoms of water, off Skerries, Co. 

 Dublin. It seems probable that this species was included under the 

 name Pectinaria belgica, Lam., by Thompson (*'Nat. Hist, of Ireland," 

 vol. iv., p. 429). He describes it as of "the size of the full -grown 

 Dentaliiim ailalis, and of similar curvature." This is clearly not the 

 straight-tubed P. belgica, Lam., but may be either /'. auricoma (Miill) or 

 Cistenides gramilata, L. It is difficult to see from Thompson's account 

 whether the straight-tubed P. belgica was obtained or not, though the 

 specimens taken b}- Templeton in Strangford Lough, to which 

 Thompson refers, are placed by Johnson ("Catalogue of Worms," p. 244) 

 under P. belgica, Lam. 



N. Coi^GAN exhibited living specimens of two of the rarer Co. Dublin 

 Nudibranchs, Tritonia Hovibergi and Polycerna Lessonii, dredged in 10 

 fathoms off Bullock Harbour, on the I4tli December last, during one of 

 the winter dredging trips of the Dublin Marine Biological Committee. 

 The individuals shown had lived with the exhibitor for twenty-five days, 

 during which they had fed freely on the common zoophyte, Anienntdaria 

 antennina. When mature, Tritonia is the largest ot the Britannic Nudi- 

 branchs, attaining to a length of six inches. The Bullock specimen 

 exhibited was, however, quite juvenile, measuring only | of an inch. 

 Under a low power its branchiae and tentacles were very interesting 

 objects. 



J. N. Halbkrt exhibited specimens of a small Rove-beetle, Thaviiarcea 

 hospita, Maerk., found last February in burrows made by the Goat Moth 

 {Cosstis ligniperdd) xn an old oak tree in the Lucan demense. There are 

 only two recorded European species in the genus Thamiarsea, both of 

 which appear to live almost exclusively in the tunnellings of the Goat 

 Moth in various forest trees. The species here recorded is rather wide- 

 spread in Central Europe, and occurs also in the more southerly 

 parts of the Britannic area. It has not been previously recorded from 

 Ireland. 



W. F. GuNN exhibited a minute fungus, Stilbiim touientosiim^ growing 

 on Trichia chrysospenna. The host plants had been gathered from the de- 

 cayed trunk of a tree in Killakee Woods about two months previously, 

 and had been kept in a closed glass vessel. In the interval the sporangia 

 oi the Trichia had burst, exposing the capilitium and spores, and the 

 Sdlbum developed on the sub-stratum thus formed. 



F. W. Moore showed a small slice from the upper surface of the sepals 

 of Scaphoscpaluiii anchoriferum. In many of these minute orchids the lip 



