693 



XV. — On the Recent and Fossil Foraminifcra of the Shore- 

 sands of Selsey Bill, Sussex. — VI. A Contribution towards 

 the ^Etiology of Massilina secans (d'Orbigny sp.). 



By Edward Heron-Allen, F.L.S., F.E.M.S., and 

 Arthur Earland, F.R.M.S. 



(Bead October 19, 1910.) 



The more than merely superficial student of the Foraminifera 

 comes rapidly to the conclusion that familiarity with the robust 

 and conspicuous, and above all exceedingly common shells of 

 Massilina secans has bred for it a species of contempt. Certainly 

 no Rhizopod has had greater liberties taken with its name, and 

 from its original appearance as Frumentaria seminula (Soldani) in 

 1795, through Quinqueloculina (d'Orbigny) in 1826, Miliolina 

 (Brady) in 1884, Sigmoilina (Schlumberger) in 1887, to Massilina 

 (Schlumberger) in 1893, under which generic name it is now 

 enjoying a brief rest, it has been the prey of the species-monger 

 or "splitter." It is undoubtedly, as we have had occasion to 

 remark elsewhere, the commonest of all British Foraminifera.* It 

 is by no means a rare thing to find stretches of sand upon our 

 southern, and probably other, coasts, strewn with a thick deposit of 

 pure Foraminifera extending for a mile or more, and many yards 

 in breadth, ninety-five per cent, or more of which is entirely 

 composed of Massilina secans. At Dog's Bay, in Connemara, its 

 shells are blown up from the beach, with a small intermingling 

 of other species, in such vast quantities as to form extensive 

 banks or dunes high up on the shore, thus forming a true organic 

 sub-aerial deposit. It is, therefore, the more remarkable that, as 

 far as we know, there is no published record of its occurrence 

 east of Bognor, where it was recorded by Earland,! or, south of 

 the Orkney and Shetland Islands (where it has been found by 

 Earland during the cruises of the Fisheries Commission steamer 

 ' Goldseeker ') on the east coast of the British Isles. This is re- 

 corded here for the first time, together with the fact of its ccurrence 

 in the shore-sands at St. Andrews on the shores of Fife, N.B., and 

 also at Kingsgate and Broadstairs, in the Isle of Thanet (Kent), 

 where it has been found by Heron -Allen. In view of the 

 enormous quantity in which the species is found, it is not re- 

 markable that it is liable to extraordinary eccentricities of form, 



* Knowledge, xxxiii. No. 505 (Aug. 1910) p. 304. 



t The Foraminifera of the Shore-sand at Bognor, Sussex. Journ. Quekett 

 Micr. Club., Nov. 1905, p. 187. 



