ii6 



The Irish Naturalist* 



May, 



REVIEW. 



SOME NEW IRISH CRUSTACEA. 



The Schizopodous Crustacea of the North-east Atlantic 



Slope. By B. W. L. Holt and W. M. TatTERSAi,!., B.Sc. 

 On the Genus Nematobrachlon. By W. T. Cai^man, D.Sc. 

 Appendix to Part li. of the Report on the Sea and Inland Fisheries 

 of Ireland, 1902-1903. No. iv. Dublin, 1905. 



The report on the scientific investigations (No. iv.) of the Fisheries 

 Branch of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for 

 Ireland again contains some papers of considerable faunistic interest. 

 The subject ofthe first paper embraces a much larger area than what has 

 been described as the " Irish marine area." 



It is worthy of note that those naturalists who joined in the work of the 

 Royal Irish Academy Fauna and Flora Committee in their endeavour to 

 produce complete and up-to-date lists of the various groups of Irish 

 animals and plants showing the range of the Irish species, have agreed 

 to limit their sphere of action to the terrestrial area of Ireland, and to a 

 certain distance beyond, so as to include the forms inhabiting the sea. 

 They could not logically do otherwise. They also agreed to call this 

 limited area of their sphere of action the *' Irish " area, for if an author 

 speaks of a marine crustacean as " Irish " or as an addition to the Irish 

 list, he thereby implies that he has arrived at some conclusion that there 

 is an Irish marine area," and that it has some definite boundaries. 



The authors of the first report seem to be rather afraid to commit 

 themselves on this point, for they inform us in afoot-note, p. 131, that 

 they use the term "British and Irish " in a compound sense and not in 

 recognition of a separate Irish marine area. Surely the action ofthe 

 Irish Fisheries Branch must be limited to a certain area ! Would it not 

 be well therefore for the members of that Branch to recognise a separate 

 Irish marine area ? However the authors acknowledge, p. 133, that the 

 British and Irish area has its limits, and that there is an " Irish list," so 

 that they do recognise the claims of certain creatures to be labelled as 

 " Irish," which is some consolation. 



But the object of this note is not to criticise the paper adversely. 

 The descriptions of the new species — there are several — are carefully 

 drawn up and accompanied by excellent drawings of the species. It 

 would be useful, however, to Irish zoologists to be informed where 

 the type specimens are to be preserved for future reference. The text is 

 worthy of a better quality of paper and printing than that bestowed upon 

 it by the authorities in charge. 



The second paper of the report by Dr. Caiman deals with the single 

 genus Nematobrachion^ which was originally described by that author 

 under the name of Nematodactyhis. The latter name had unfortunately 

 been previously used for a genus of fishes, and had to be withdrawn. 



