46 Dr. E. P. Wriglit on a neiv Species o/Pennella. 



Cork, one of the few medical men of Ireland who never, amid 

 the exigencies of a large professional practice, forget the in- 

 terests of science. He informs me that the two specimens 

 were found projecting from a circular depression in the thick 

 skin of a young sunfish, near to its dorsal fin ; thej were 

 buried in the skin and muscle of the fish to an extent of three 

 inches. One specimen was broken off in removing it. There 

 were also two specimens of Tristoma coccineum adhering to 

 the head of the fish. 



I have compared this species with all those of which I could 

 find an account. Some figures and descriptions, like those in 

 the * Voyage de la Peyrouse,' represent species which it would 

 be impossible to determine without the aid of the original spe- 

 cimens. The largest species described, and the one that I 

 think approaches nearest to P. ortliaciorisci,, is \\\^ P. pustxdosa^ 

 Baird. This species was originally published in Angas's 

 * Savage Life and Scenes in Australia ;' but Dr. Baird's de- 

 scription was copied into the 'Annals,' ser. 1. vol. xix. 1847, 

 p. 280 ; the woodcut is not very characteristic. The specimen 

 was found buried in a dolphin's body, near its gills (the 

 dolphin was captured in lat. 11° 54' S., long. 27° W.) ; the 

 length was 4 inches. The plumose appendages are described 

 as simple, and the abdomen as being of a very dark purple 

 colour, and studded all over with small whitish pustules. If 

 there be no mistake in the description of the plumose ap- 

 pendages, the species from the dolphin is not the same as that 

 from the sunfish. Dr. Baird informs me that he examined a 

 si^ecimen of Pennella from a sunfish captured at Megavissey, 

 Cornwall, which he refers to P. Jilosa, Linn. This will have 

 been, I think, the first instance of the capture of this species 

 on the coast of Great Britain. 



Professor Claus* figures the eye of a species of Pennella^ 

 which he found placed below the cheliform antennae. He de- 

 scribes it as consisting of a collection of pigment-cells covered by 

 three clear cornea-like portions — one central, and one on either 

 side. I cannot find, on a close examination of two specimens of 

 P. orthagorisci, any appearance of a corneal structure. In the 

 place indicated by Professor Claus there is a collection of pig- 

 ment, which certainly acts as an eye, and there are obscure traces 

 of the pigment matter being arranged into a series of hexagonal 

 facets. The feathered antennules (or appendages to the second 

 cephalic somite) were distinctly to be seen on both specimens 

 examined. I cannot find that they have been described or 

 figured as occurring in any species of Pennella. Their exist- 

 ence is a matter of some little interest ; for we thus find the 

 ♦ L. c. p. 5, pi. 2. fig. 10. 



