44 Linnaan Society. 



which seem to prove the presence of several stems ; and to some fine 

 specimens of fasciations from the Society's collection which were 

 placed upon the table. 



April 19, 1853. — R. Brown, Esq., President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Westwood, F.L.S., communicated a notice of the discovery 

 in England of a new genus and species of Amphipodous Crustacea, 

 the Niphargus stygius of Schiodte, an animal hitherto only found in 

 the caverns of Adelsberg, celebrated as the locality of the Proteus 

 anguinus. The Crustacean in question has been found in great 

 numbers in a well near Maidenhead, the water of which was in con- 

 sequence rendered unfit for use. Mr. Westwood took occasion to 

 remind the Members of the opinion entertained by some naturalists 

 of the existence of a distinct subterranean fauna of which the Pro- 

 teus was an example ; the members of which fauna hitherto disco- 

 vered were remarkable for their general want of colour, and for 

 their being destitute of eyes, two physiological conditions dependent 

 on the dark and gloomy places where they have hitherto been found. 



Mr. Kirby, in his ' Bridgewater Treatise,' was one of those wri- 

 ters who contended that such animals formed no part of the fauna 

 now in existence on the surface of the earth, but belonged to a di- 

 stinct subterranean race of animals. M. Schiodte, in a remarkable 

 memoir recently published in the Transactions of the Danish Aca- 

 demy (which Dr. Wallich has kindly translated for the Entomolo- 

 gical Society of London, in whose memoirs the translation has ap- 

 peared), has described a number of singular animals belonging to the 

 class of Annulosa, exhibiting all the characteristics of such a fauna, 

 being destitute of sight and also almost or quite colourless. Amongst 

 them are the Crustacean in question, a species of Spider and false 

 Scorpion, a species of the family Poduridte, and several Coleoptera, 

 all of which were found in the caverns of Adelsberg in Carniola. 

 Mr. Westwood also noticed that animals very closely related to 

 those described by Schiodte had been found in the Great Mammoth 

 Cave in Kentucky, including also a blind species of Cray-fish, and 

 one or more species of fishes destitute of eyes, at least wanting the 

 transparent external cornea, although the o])tic nerve was present, 

 which would probably allow a certain sensibility to the presence of 

 light ; and M. Schmidt had noticed that two newly discovered spe- 

 cies of Beetles belonging to one of Schiodte's singular genera had, 

 although destitute of all external rudiments of eyes, exhibited a 

 sensibility to light by retreating under stones and towards the 

 darker parts of the cavern when brought towards its entrance. A 

 remarkable new genus of Shrimps had also been recently described 

 by Professor Bell in his work on British Crustacea, dredged at a 

 very great depth of the ocean, of which the eyes, although present, 

 were destitute of the usual hexagonal facets. 



Read a paper " On the Ocelli in the genus Anthophorabia, 

 Newp." By George Newport, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S., &c. 



The author remarked that since the publication of his observations 

 on these insects in the ' Transactions ' of the Society, his attention 



