PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
75 
appears about a fortnight earlier than A. filipendulae. At least two dozen of the co¬ 
coons of the latter changed about fifteen days after I first took minos, and with one 
solitary exception minos was the only Anthrocera I saw while in Galway. 
The following trivial names are given by Ochsenheimer as synonyms of Zygsena 
(Anthrocera) minos:— 
Zvgeena pythia. Fabricius; do. Panzer (confounds with Z. scabiosee) Vieweg. 
,, pilosellae, Borkhausen ; Sc branch ; Esper ; Ernst. 
■n polygalae, Borkhausen; Esper —A marked variety, in which the red spots 
run together, and fill nearly the whole wing. 
,, Vicize, Lang. 
Sphinx purpuralis Mueller Prodomus Zoologize Danicae, a.d. 1776, is also cited 
as comprising both minos and scabiosae ; but, as he cites Schaeffer’s figure of the 
latter, the application is best made to this, of which purpuralis would be the earlier 
name. I have to thank Mr. Haliday for information regarding the Synonymy. 
Professor Melville, M.D., M.R.I.A., then made the following observations on the 
occurrence of 
STEPHANOMIA CONTORTA, MILNE-EDWARDS ? AND AGALMA GETTYANA, HYNDMAN ? 
—ADDITIONS TO THE BRITISH FAUNA. 
It becomes my pleasing duty to exhibit to the members of this Association the 
accompanying drawing of two Acalephae, both of them additions to the British 
Fauna (vide Plate vii.). You are, doubtless, aware that there are both simple and 
compound Medusae. 
Of this latter class few are on record as frequenting the British seas, and it re¬ 
mained for the energetic zeal of our own Irish naturalists to draw these forth from the 
bosom of the ocean and to introduce them to the notice of the British naturalist. The 
first (Fig. 1, Plate vii.) was discovered in Kingstown harbour about the 2nd of June 
last, by one of the honorary secretaries of this association, Joseph Greene, Esq., a 
gentleman whose never-tiring energy in the cause of our marine zoology ; whose 
attentive memory and quick eye will let but few of nature’s secrets pass by him ; 
and who, I doubt not, if his life be spared, will much advance our knowledge of 
Irish zoology. The other (Fig. 2, Plate vii.) was discovered in August, 1841, by 
Edmund Getty, Esq., of Belfast—a name well known to you all, whom it would be 
quite unnecessary to panegyrize. I will call your attention to the former one first. 
It belongs to the genus Stephanomia, of Peron, and I am inclined to refer it to the 
“ contorta,” Milue-Edwards, a species found by him at Nice. His opportunities 
of examining this animal would appear to have been but few, as it did not occur 
to him in any great numbers ; it is furnished with a small oval sac (vide Plate vii., a, 
and Plate vi.; 3 magnified view), which is filled with air, and has the appear¬ 
ance, when the animal is alive, of a globule of quicksilver, and the slight inequalities 
of its surface reflect the light in such a manner that it often looks as if a fine net¬ 
work of veins, filled with a crimson coloured fluid, ramified over its surface. By 
the aid of this closed sac, no matter what position the Stephanomia assumes, it is 
always sure of coming up to the surface with its u head” foremost. 
Next we observe a small number of organs clustered around the common tube 
(vide Plate vii., 6, and Plate vi.; 3 magnified), and on watching them closely we 
perceive in each of them every now and then a gentle pulsating motion, caused by 
the taking in and rejection of the water. These organs would not appear to act ne¬ 
cessarily in unison; but one side, or one set, acting more vigorously than the other, 
sways the compound body, now hither, now thither. These are the organes nata- 
toires of Milne-Edwards ; and I am of opinion that their number varies, according 
to circumstances. The slightest touch given to the organe hydrostatique, or air 
vessel, set these swimming bladders in motion, and they at once begun to pulsate, 
until, finally, the whole living mass settled quietly at the surface again. 
Extending from the air-cell to a distance, in this specimen, of—when quite ex¬ 
panded—some six or seven inches, was the common stock or stolon, a hollow tube, 
capable of considerable contraction, and coiled up on irritation in the spiral form 
figured in Milne-Edwards ; to this, and in close proximity to the air-cell, the 
