LEPRALIA. 32] 
from which its name has been taken, is a thick strong 
spine, which turns up, nearly at right angles, from the 
lower end of the cells. Two equally thick and strong 
spines stand up in the same position, one on each side of 
the mouth; the two mouth-spines and tail not being per- 
fectly upright, but inclining slightly towards each other. 
The resemblance of many of the cells to a cockchafer or 
tailed-beetle is very strikmg. I have only found ZL. melo- 
lontha on the flat shells of native oysters, and usually near 
the joint end, in some little dip or hollow, where the polype 
perhaps hoped to have his house and himself secure from 
injury. But if so, we must admit that he is a very bad 
judge of such matters, for the fatness of his favourite shell 
exposes him to-so many rubs and injuries that it is hardly 
possible to find a specimen in which the tail and mouth- 
spines are perfect ; in so many cases they have been broken 
off, leaving an aperture in their place. These accidents 
have perhaps been the cause of the peculiarity of this 
species not having been sooner noticed; for, deprived of 
the mouth-spines and tail, it is difficult to discover any 
difference between JL. melolontha and L. nitida, except the 
fact of LZ. melolontha growing in a branched figure, instead 
of in alternate rows, as is the usual Lepradia fashion.” 
Y 
