202 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
I trust I may be excused for bringing this circumstance under the 
notice of the Society. If the “ Eape of the Lock” was a sufficient theme 
for Pope, surely a naturalist may be excused for noticing the abduction 
of this pretty little flower by one of the wild denizens of Dartmoor, espe¬ 
cially as the robber is the more worthy of consideration, from the care 
he took of his beautiful protege. 
Professor Kinahan, M.D., read a paper— 
ON THE GENUS SCORPIONURA (j. V. THOMPSON, MSS.). 
In the fourth volume of the “Natural History of Ireland,” by W. 
Thompson, are recorded, by name only, three species of decapodous Crus¬ 
tacea, under the names of Scorpionura vulgaris, Scorp. maxima, and Scorp. 
longicornis. No description of this genus having been ever published, it 
is a matter of some moment to identify the species thus named, and which 
now exist in the collection of the Loyal Dublin Society. I, therefore, 
gladly avail myself of the kind permission of our Honorary Member, 
Charles Spence Pate, P. L. S., to lay before you to-night the results to 
which he has arrived on examination of these specimens, and at the same 
time beg to record a locality for one of the species in the neighbourhood 
of Dublin. I prefer this course to myself drawing up any description of 
the species, as Mr. Spence Pate has already so thoroughly studied the 
family (the Diastylidse), to which these species are referable, as to render 
it presumptuous on my part to offer any remarks on the structure of 
the animals. 
My object in this communication is confined to proving, through the 
identification of these specimens, that the genus thus named by the late 
J. Y. Thompson must be erased from our lists, the species composing it 
falling under the following genera:—Diastylis ( Say ), Cyrianassa {Sp. 
Bate), and a new genus for which Mr. Spence Pate suggests the name 
of Yaunthompsonia. At one time Mr. Spence Pate thought of retaining 
the name Scorpionura for this last genus ; but that name being already 
pre-occupied, he has thought it better to call the genus after the disco¬ 
verer of the Irish species. 
It is extremely interesting to find among this collection—probably 
among the great haul made on the 28th April, 1823—several specimens 
of females with ova, showing that their observer was aware of these being 
adult forms, and adding another to the species recorded by Spence Pate 
as bearing this strong proof of these being mature, and not, as has been 
stated by some of our best authorities, the zoes of some of the Macroura. 
I have extractedMr. Pate’s communication and figures in extenso from the 
“ Journal of the Eoyal Dublin Society,” before whose evening meeting of 
the 28th May it was read. 
Diastylis Eathkli {Kr. sp.). Scorpionura vulgaris (/. V. Th. MSS.) 
Alauna rostrata ( Goodsir). Cuma Eathkii {Kroger). 
Dublin : near Skerries, by the late Eobert Pall, LL. D. {vide Thomp¬ 
son’s “Natural History,” vol. iv., p. 392 ); Newcastle, Co. Down ( W . 
