214 Zuologicat Society : — 



23. Bedellia somnulentella, Zeller. 

 Bedellia somnulentella, Stainton, Mus. Cat. p. 134. 

 Inhabits Madeira proper. 



24. Oinophila flava, Haworth. 

 Oinophila V-fiava, Stainton, Mus. Cat. p. 136. 



The occurrence at Madeira proper of this insect, which, with 

 us, resides in the corks of wine-bottles, is interesting. 



25. Pterophorus acanthoductylus, Hiibner. 

 Pterophorus acanthodactylus, Stainton, Mus. Cat. p. 174. 

 Inhabits Madeira proper. 



26. Pterophorus ptei'odactylus, Linnaeus, 

 Pterophorus pterodaetylus, Stainton, Mus. Cat. p. 177- 

 Inhabits Madeira proper. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



July 13, 1858. — Dr. Gray, F.R.S., V.P., in the Chair. 



On the Genus Synapta. By S. P. Woodward and Lucas 

 Barrett. 



The marine animals allied to the Sea Cucumbers, forming the 

 genus Synapta, possess a peculiar interest for that large class of 

 persons who study Natural History with the microscope, because 

 they afford the miniature Anchors, of which a hundred may be 

 shown in the field of the "inch object-glass," and thousands some- 

 times exist iu the space of a square inch — each elegant in form and 

 perfectly finished, and articulated to an anchor-plate whose pattern 

 (as well as that of the anchor itself) is characteristic of the species 

 to which it belongs. 



Curiously enough, these anchors were unknown to all the earlier 

 writers, and most of the moderns. Forskal, who had the merit of 

 describing two species of Synapta so long ago as 17/5, remarked 

 that they " adhered to the finger by glutinous papillae invisible to 

 the eye." O. F. Midler called the Northern species Holothuria in- 

 hcerens for the same reason. And Eschscholtz, who met with several 

 species at Tahiti and on the coast of Russian America, concluded 

 that they ought " to form a class apart, not having tubular feet, but 

 adhering, by means of their sharp skin, to extraneous objects, on 

 which account they might be called Synapta *." 



* Appendix to Kotzebue's Second Voyage, 8vo, Lond. 1830, p. 338. Van dei 

 Heaven makes Eschscholtz say the Synapta adheres " by means of small hook- 



