Miscellaneous, 489 



cimens. As the creature is destitute of claws to the feet, which 

 could be used as instruments of support, and has suctorial disks in- 

 stead, it appears probable that it would be capable of traversing such 

 surfaces only as were sufficiently even for the action of the disks, and 

 that suitable surfaces might be furnished by the fruit or leaves of 

 many of the trees of tropical America, from which the pig-like snout 

 of the animal would be well adapted for taking minute insects in a 

 state of rest. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Note on Dysidea papillosa, Johnston. 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c. 



Mr. George Barlee, on the 28th of August, wrote to me from 

 Lerwick — " I have a curious Zoophyte I can send you : it is John- 

 ston's Dysidea papillosa : it is not a Sponge, but a true Zoo- 

 phyte : I saw the polype at work constantly : it is very abundant 

 here." In another note, of the 8th of September, he further ob- 

 serves — "I saw, at Mr. Bean's, Johuston' s Di/sidea 2Japillosa, and 

 find it quite identical with my shell and organism, although the 

 former is attached to a shell, and mine is free, which at once sets 

 the m.atter at rest." Mr. Barlee further adds (November 3), " that 

 there were more came up in the dredge free, than were attached, 

 and that they seem to abound on muddy ground both east and north 

 of Brassey Island, about thirty miles off, and in about 70 or 80 fa- 

 thoms of water. The polype seemed generally very active, and I 

 saw no shifting of position of the animals while I had them in the 

 basin, although there might have been some during the nights ; but 

 I often watched them for half-an-hour at a time, and perceived no 

 change of position." 



Mr. Barlee has kindly sent some specimens to the British Museum. 

 The coral has all the more important external characters and organi- 

 zation of the genus Corticifera of Lesueur (Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 

 i. 178. t. 8. f. 6, 7), found in the ^yest India islands. But a genus 

 {SidisiaJ must be formed for it, as, while Corticifera consists of a 

 number of short cylindrical animals springing from an expanded 

 base, Sidisia is cylindrical, more or less branched, and free, or only 

 attached by its base to a shell or rock. 



On the Auditory App)aratus of Insects. By C. Lespes. 



The author places the seat of hearing in Insects in the antennae. 

 He refers to the apertures in the surface of the antennae described 

 by Erichson, which, he states, exist in all insects ; they are closed by 

 a membrane like the tympanum, or rather, like (he fenestra rotunda 

 of the ear of the Vertebrata. These the author proposes to call 

 tyrnpamdes. 



Behind the membrane or tympanule, and applied directlv to its 

 surface, there is a small sac filled with a thick fluid, and almost 

 always containing a solid body ; this is probably an auditory sac 



