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XIV.— NOTES ON TWO IRISH SPECIMENS OF EDWARDSIA 

 TIMIDA (QUATREFAGES). By G. Y. DIXON, M.A. 

 (With Plate VI.) 



[Read, January 20, 1886.] 

 Edwardsia timida (duatrefages). 



Historical. 



Edwardsia timida, . . Quatrefages, 1842, Ann. des Sci. Nat., 



Ser. 2, xviii., p. 70, pi. 2, fig. 1. 



Edwardsia harassi, . . Quatrefages, 1842, ibid., p. 71, pi. 2, 



fig. 2. 



Edwardsiella harassi, . Andres, 1884, Die Aetinien, Fauna u. 



Flora, d. Grolfes, v. Neapel, ix. p. 94. 



Edwardsiella timida, . Andres, 1884, ibid., p. 96. 



This species has previously been recorded from only one dis- 

 trict — Ohansey, Manche (North France), where it was found by 

 Quatrefages. Last autumn, however, I had the good fortune to 

 find two speoimens at Malahide, county Dublin. With the excep- 

 tion of an immature Edwardsia found by Professor A. C. Haddon 

 at Salthill, Dublin Bay, 1 this is, I believe, the first example 

 of this genus recorded from Ireland. Quatrefages separated 

 E. timida from E. harassi on four grounds : — (1) the tentacles in 

 E. timida, he thought, were in a single row, while those of 

 E. harassi were arranged in two rows. I believe this distinction 

 •is only due to the different state of extension of the disk. For 

 when the animal is much extended the tentacles appear to be 

 uniserial; but when it is not extended to its full size they seem 

 to be in two distinct rows, alternately arranged. (2) Quatre- 

 fa^es describes the mouth and disk of E. timida as flat, and those 

 of E. harassi as being raised so as to form a terminal papilla. 

 This distinction also I believe to be based on a merely temporary 

 condition : in both my specimens the mouth and disk were continu- 



1 Froc. Boy, Jr. Acad., 2nd ser., vol. iv., p. 527. 



