124 REPORT 1860. 



the final cere-cloths were applied. These insects were not specifically distinguish- 

 able from existing species, although of a somewhat paler colour. 



On a Lepidopterous Parasite occurring on the Body of the Fulgora candelaria. 

 By J. O. Westwood, M.A., F.L.S. 



After some general remarks on parasitism, the author gave a detailed account of 

 the occurrence of the larvae of a species of moth on the body of the firefly (Fulgora 

 candelaria'), for which the name of Epipyrops anomala had been proposed by Mr. 

 Bowring, by whom the transformations of the insect had been observed in China. 

 Not only was the fact of the parasitism of the species as a Lepidopterous insect 

 extremely unusual, but also the circumstance that it was not upon the ligaments of 

 the body that the larva of this moth fed, but evidently upon the white waxy secre- 

 tion so common amongst the Fulgoridce, with which their abdomens are enveloped, 

 was quite anomalous, although wax-feeding habits were known to occur in the 

 larvse of the species of wax-moths. The insect in question appeared to belong to 

 the great family Bonibycida?, and specimens were preserved in the British Museum 

 and Hopeian Collection at Oxford. 



Notes on Tomopteris onisciformis. By Dr. E. Perceval Wright, A.M. 

 Dub. O.ron., F.L.S., Lecturer on Zoology, Dublin University. 



In the summer of 1858, while investigating with Professor J. Beay Greene of 

 Cork, the marine zoology of the south-west coast of Ireland, I had an opportimity 

 of examining somewhat in detail the structure of that puzzling little annulose 

 animal, called Tomopteris oitisciformis. The tidal current sets in very strongly from 

 the Atlantic into the narrow entrance between Bere Island and the main land, and 

 carries along with it, in the summer season, whole fleets of oceanic swimming 

 creatures. The number of naked-eyed Medusa; and free Actinozoana is almost pass 

 belief to those who have not witnessed similar phenomena. Various little bays 

 with hollow caverns line the sides of this channel, and in these the water lies very 

 still and quiet ; here, too, vast numbers of the oce an swimmers congregate, imparting 

 to the water almost a milky hue, which sometimes changes and presents an appear- 

 ance as if oil had been cast upon it, owing to the highly prismatic colouring of the 

 various Beroes, ^Equoreas, Cydippes, See. A retired nook of this sort is a very 

 paradise to the marine explorer, and such were to us places of very frequent resort. 

 After a little practice, one's eye got accustomed to the varied kinds of locomotion 

 that distinguished more or less each species, so that when I first perceived T. 

 onisciformis swimming swiftly with its very peculiar wriggling movements, small as 

 it was, I perceived it to be something new ; and a few seconds served to transfer it 

 to a glass collecting-jar. While the whole body was more or less employed, by 

 successive wrigglings, in locomotion, j et it was quite obvious that true locomotion 

 was assisted by the bipinnated scries of paddle-shaped organs which are attached 

 at each side of the body. When compared with the graceful floating and umbrella 

 movements of an iEquorea, or the headlong paddle-wheel-like movements of a 

 Beroe or a Cydippe, it could not be truthfully described as graceful ; nevertheless, 

 there was something about it very characteristic — something that even seemed to 

 point out its proper natural affinities. One of the little creatures lived in apparently 

 food health with me for about twelve hours, though incarcerated in a small glass 

 ar holding but ten ounces of water : and it would have probably Hied longer, but 

 '. wanted its tail for examination, and the necessary compression of such an agile 

 and slippery creature between two pieces of thin glass hastened its end. The 

 author then alluded to the papers by Br. Carpenter, Messrs. Leuckart and Pagen- 

 stecher and others on this creature, and gave an outline of its anatomy, alluding to 

 the presence of cilia on the pharyngeal portion, to the peculiar structure of the 

 central portion of the antenna-like organs, to the tail-like extremity, and the 

 presence therein of masses of Spermatozoa; and finally expressed his conviction 

 that there could be no doubt as to its being a complete creature, and that its tail 

 is not a zooid form, as hinted by Dr. Carpenter. 



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