32 OCCURRENCE OF LIMNORIA TEREBRANS. 
This animal, so detrimental to our docks and other submerged 
wooden works connected with marine affairs, is scarcely two lines 
long, and is otherwise so insignificant in appearance that most 
persons, at first sight, would deem it unworthy of a thought. 
It is allied to the sea wood lice (the Oniscide), and is supposed 
to feed on the wood into which it bores. I have some reason, 
however, to doubt the truth of this, for I have found minutely 
comminuted wood in the entrance of the burrows, as if thrown 
out by the animal. If so, then the Limnoria is no exception» 
as has been supposed, to the general rule, that all the Crustacea 
feed on animal substances. 
In conclusion, I beg to apologise for having trespassed on the 
time of the Club, with the present communication, which cer- 
tainly I would not have done, had not the subject of it possessed 
more than ordinary interest. It belongs also to the district in 
which we are now assembled, and I thought it proper to make 
known that we have this troublesome animal at the mouth of the 
Tyne: and I am acquainted with no better way of doing so than 
through the medium of this Society. | 
Newcastle, Sept. 10, 1846. 
