Art. XXVII.— Notes on, and Additions to, the New Zealand Molluscan Fauna.

By Henry Suter.

is smaller than Pliocene specimens usually are, being 16 mm. high, but otherwise it cannot be separated from the fossil form. This species appears first in the Upper Miocene of New Zealand.

4. Ancilla depressa, Sowerby.

Ancillaria depressa, Sow., Thes. Conch., vol. iii, 1859, p. 63, pl. 211, fig. 3. A. lata, Hutton, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xvii, 1884 (1885), p. 325; Pliocene Moll. N.Z., 1893, p. 44, pl. 6, fig. 15; Suter, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxxviii, 1905 (1906), p. 332.

I am under obligation to Mr. J. H. Ponsonby, of London, for copies of the diagnosis and a beautifully coloured figure from the Thesaurus, which leave not the least doubt about the identity of the two species. Sowerby's name has priority. Reeve treats A. depressa as a synonym of A. australis, Sow., but the two are quite distinct.

5. Heliacus variegatus, Gmelin.

One specimen, kindly identified for me by Mr. C. Hedley, was dredged by Captain J. Bollons in 37 fathoms off Cuvier Island, but without the characteristic operculum. This is a highly interesting addition to our fauna. The shell is usually known as Torinia variegata, but Harris has shown^* that Torinia, Gray, is only a list name, and that Heliacus, d'Orbigny, 1842, should be used.

6. Neojanacus perplexus, n. gen. et n. sp.

Genus (?), Murdoch and Suter, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxxviii, 1905 (1906), p. 301, pl. 27, figs. 52–54.

Since describing this curious shell I examined the specimen several times carefully, and it struck me that it looked very much like Crepidula (Janacus) crepidula, L. (= unguiformis, Lam.) without a septum; I first thought that this had been broken off, but examination under a powerful lens revealed no trace of fracture, the under-surface being everywhere smooth and polished.

Amongst shells dredged by Captain J. Bollons in 18 fathoms, Port Pegasus, Stewart Island, I found to my great surprise a number of specimens of the very same shell in different stages of growth, quite young examples being oval in shape; none had the animal attached to the shell, and the anatomy, therefore, still remains unknown. I sent a few specimens to Dr. W. H. Dall, of the U.S. Nat. Museum, and I am indebted to him for the following information: “The shell from Stewart Island is very curious. It is certainly not a Crepidula, the fea-

tures which recall that genus being evidently adaptive in both groups. I should suspect a relation to Capulus—that is, that it might be some form of Capulus which had taken to living inside shells, as the unguiformis (Janacus) type of Crepidula has done. I have described, under the name of Hyalopatina, a curious shell which recalls this, but has a more central nucleus. I took it to be related to Umbrella, or something of that sort, but have only the one specimen without the animal. It is finely radiately sculptured, and nearly flat. Whether this and your shell are nearly related I cannot pretend to say, but conchologically there are points of resemblance. You will find Hyalopatina figured on plate 30, fig. 5, of Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 1264.” The shell was described by Dr. Dall as Hyalopatina rushii. ^*

Fresh specimens of our shell show a dextral spiral smooth protoconch, and a horse-shoe-shaped muscle-scar. The surface is concentrically striated, but there is no radiate sculpture. For this new shell I propose the generic name Neojanacus, and place it in the family Capulidœ. I need hardly say that for the present the diagnosis of the species must also be that of the genus. It is to be hoped that the anatomy of the two conchologically related genera Hyalopatina and Neojanacus may be investigated some day, and their true systematic position settled.

Type (from 110 fathoms, off Great Barrier Island) in the Colonial Museum.

7. Scala corulum, Hutton.

Scalaria corulum, Hutton, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xvii, 1884 (1885), p. 332, pl. 18, fig. 22; Pliocene Moll. N.Z., 1893, p. 67, pl. 8, fig. 72.

In sand collected by Miss Marjorie K. Mestayer, of Wellington, I found one specimen of this minute shell. It is slightly smaller than Pliocene examples. The number of molluscs of our Pliocene found recent is rapidly increasing!

8. Crossea cancellata, Tenison-Woods.

Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasm., 1877 (1878), p. 122; Tate and May, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 1901, p. 380, pl. 23, fig. 1 (= Delphinula johnstoni, Beddome, 1882).

A specimen, kindly identified for me by Mr. C. Hedley, has been in my collection for a number of years, and was obtained in Whangaroa Harbour. It represents a conical variety of the species. This brings the number of New Zealand species of Crossea up to three.

9. Schismope atkinsoni, Tenison-Woods, sp.

Scissurella atkinsoni, T.-Woods, Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasm., 1876 (1877), p. 149. Schismope carinata, Watson, “Challenger” Rep., Zool., vol. xv, 1886, p. 119, pl. 8, fig. 6.

I have one specimen from Whangaroa Harbour, which agrees with shells in my collection from South Australia, and my identification was confirmed by Mr. C. Hedley. The species is recorded from Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria, and New South Wales.

10. Haliotis varia, Linné.

Syst. Nat., 12th ed., 1767, p. 1256. Haliotis viridis, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1846, p. 56. H. semistriata, Reeve, Conch. I.c., f. 51.

Some years ago I bought a few specimens of a (to me) unknown Haliotis from Mr. E. Craig, Auckland, who told me that they were collected south of Whangarei. The best specimen I sent to Mr. E. A. Smith for naming, and with his constant obligingness he wrote to me, “It seems to me inseparable from H. varia, L., of which H. viridis, Reeve, is in my opinion a synonym. Of course it is difficult to say for certain, having only one shell, and that in rather worn condition.” Since then I have acquired a fine specimen, which perfectly agrees with Reeve's figure in Conch. Icon., and description.

11. Onithochiton undulatus, Q. and G., n. var. subantarcticus.

At the Auckland and Campbell Islands there occurs a very constant colour variety, chocolate-brown, which certainly deserves a varietal name. Sometimes one or several intermediate valves are transversely banded with white. The girdle is always buff-coloured.

Type, from the Auckland Islands, in my collection.

12. Dosinia lambata, Gould.

Dosinia carpenteri, Römer, Monogr. Dosinia, 1862, pl. 10, fig. 2; Hutton, Man. N.Z. Moll., 1880, p. 150.

Römer's species I consider to be a synonym of D. lambata, as already stated in 1902.^* Some time back I sent a specimen of the latter to Professor Lampert, of the Kgl. Naturalien Kabinet, Stuttgart, asking him to be good enough and compare it with the type of D. carpenteri. According to news received the two are identical, Gould's name having priority.

13. Chione stutchburyi, Gray.

Venericardia zelandica, Potiez and Michaud, Gal. des Moll., vol. ii, 1844, p. 166.

Mr. C. Hedley pointed out^* that the description of Potiez and Michaud was evidently meant for Chione stutchburyi, Gray. As the species of the French authors has, as far as I know, never been figured, I sent a perfect specimen of C. stutchburyi to the museum of Douai, where the type of V. zelandica is kept. The curator, Mr. E. Gosselin, most courteously sent me excellent photos of the type and my own specimen for comparison. The only difference is in the sculpture, my specimen being younger and perfect, whereas the Douai type shows the sculpture less perfect, such as we usually find the species in muddy sand bottom. I am very glad to thus be able to confirm Mr. Hedley's opinion.

14. Venerupis carditoides, Lamarck.

V. exotica, Lam., is the same, and has priority.

The Rev. Mr. Webster's list of “Shells to be added to Fauna List” ^† (with locality only, no other information given) contains the above species, locality Takapuna. I am fully convinced that Webster is mistaken, though I have not seen his specimen. For years and years collecting has been going on at Takapuna reef, yet there is no record that this species, which inhabits the shores of Tasmania and southern Australia, has ever been found there, or in any other part of New Zealand; and the species is not so small that it might be easily overlooked—in fact, it is much larger than any of the New Zealand species of the genus. I am pretty sure that if Webster examines his specimen carefully he will find it to be Tapes costata, Q. and G. Should it, however, prove to be the species he mentions, then it is simply a dropped shell. It is not a very rare occurrence to find foreign shells dropped on our shores; in some instances they may be ballast shells. One of the most striking instances may be mentioned here. A specimen of the African fresh-water genus Lanistes was found on the bank of the River Avon, near New Brighton, and sent to England. Mr. H. A. Forbes, Liverpool, asked me to look out for this shell in the River Avon, but I did not, being already fully acquainted with the molluscan life of that river.

In my opinion, V. carditoides should not be added to our fauna list.