﻿g8 -ENDEAVOUR" SCIENTIFIC RESULTS. 



its favour. 1 But Deshayes proposed his name tor a New 

 Zealand shell figured and described by Quoy and Gaimard as 

 Venericardia australis, Lamarck. Actually, Deshayes indi- 

 cated for his species PI. 80, i. 4 of the "Astrolabe" Atlas, but 

 that illustration stands for a Tridacna, and the quotation is 

 an evident error for PI. 70, f. 12-14. 1 he account of Quoy 

 and Gaimard did not profess to introduce a new species but 

 merely to restore the V. australis of Lamarck, 2 a small, sub- 

 orbicular, purple, scale-ribbed shell from New Holland, not 

 otherwise figured. The contention of Deshayes was that the 

 Australian shell of Lamarck was wrongly identified with the 

 New Zealand shell of the "Astrolabe" Expedition. Regard- 

 ing the latter as a new and nameless species, he proposed to 

 call it Cardita quoyi.^ Until the Lamarckian type, now 

 probably in the Geneva Museum, can be re-examined, we 

 cannot judge whether Quoy and Gaimard were right in their 

 identification, and consequently whether Deshayes was, or 

 was not, justified in renaming their shell. But there can be 

 no doubt that Reeve erred in reducing Venericardia australis 

 to a svnonym of F. tridentata, Say.^ 



In any case the verdict does not afTect the name before us. 

 Our species is quite different from that figured in the "Astro- 

 labe" Atlas, and to which, if it be maintained, the name of 

 ''quoyi" can only apply. Incidentally it may be remarked 

 that this name has never been adopted^ by the conchologists 

 of New Zealand whom it chiefly concerns. 



V. australis, Lamarck, is not the only species of the genus 

 that local workers have failed to recognise. Cardita {Actin- 

 oholus) godefjroyi, Dunker,6 from Bass Strait, is here un- 

 known. I suggest that it is likely to prove identical with 

 V. himacidata, Deshayes. 



After being unseen for nearly forty years, the Cardita 

 raouli, Angas,^ has been rediscovered by Mr. \V. L. May^ 

 in 40 fathoms off Schouten Island, Tasmania. Probably this 

 is what Clessin intends by Cardita racuti, Angas (MS.), from 

 New Zealand. 5 



1 Tate— Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, xxvi., 1901, p. 434 



2 Lamarck— Anim. Sans Vert., v., 1818, p. 610. 



3 Deshayes— Proc. Zool. Soc. 1852 (1854), p. 103. 



4 Reeve— Conch. Icon., i., 1843, Cardita sp. 22. 



5 Suter— Index Faunae Nov. Zeal., 1904, p. 93. 



6 Dunker-Malak. Blatt., xviii., 1871. p. 172; Schmeltz-Cat. Mus. Godeff.. 



v., 1874, p. 173; Clessin— Conch. Cab., Lief. 355, 1887, p. 12, pi. iv., f. 6. 7. 



7 Angas— Proc. Zool. Soc, 1872, p. 613, pi. xlii., f. 12. 



8 May-Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasm., 1910 (1911), p. 312. 



9 Clessin— Op. «t, P- H. Pl- "•• fi^s. 7, 8. 



I 



