414 A ZOOGEOGRAPHIC SCHEME FOR THE MID-PACIFIC 



Marshalls.* A division of the Polynesian calendar is called 

 Palolo, and in a philological connection Hale has drawn attention 

 to the absence of this worm from eastern Polynesia.! 



Among the marine molluscan fauna of most regions are certain 

 genera which impress a geographical stamp upon the whole. Thus 

 Trigonia in Australia, Xautilus in Melanesia, Struthiolaria in the 

 circum- Antarctic zone, Ehurna in East Asia and C oncholepas in 

 west South America, each express a key-note of their respective 

 fauna. The Mollusca of Funafuti contain no such form. If 

 spread out in a series on a table they would merely suggest to a 

 conchologist that they came from tropical latitudes, between the 

 longitudes of Mauritius and Hawaii, without affording him a clue 

 to more exact locality. 



Indeed, as in all oceanic islands, the absence of certain forms 

 is more i-emarkable than the presence of others. Throughout 

 the continental islands nearest to Funafuti — New Guinea, the 

 Solomons and Fiji — various species of 2Ielo, Vohita and NaiUilus 

 are abundant and conspicuous. The line which I di-aw between 

 the oceanic and continental islands, is, however, an insuperable 

 barrier to these, though it is none to such genera as JTitTa, Conus, 

 or Ci/praea, which flourish within and beyond it. The reason 

 suggested is that the Jormei' lay eggs of great size, the young have 

 no trochosphere stage and are already bulky when hatched. They 

 are not therefore capable of crossing spaces of open sea like the 

 others. 



* Kramer — ^Biologisches Centralblatt, xix. 1899, p. 18. 



t "Palolo ill Samoan is the name of a kind of sea-worm which makes 

 its appearance in shoals in the reefs, at a certain time of year, and is 

 esteemed a great delicacy by the natives. This worm is not known at 

 the Society Islands, but the name is still retained, with no meaning 

 whatever attached to it — a striking evidence of the derivation of the 

 Tahitians from Samoa." — (Hale, U.S. Expl. Exped. Ethnography and 

 Philology, viii. 1846). This argument appears to me unsound. To cite 

 a parallel case, would it not be considered rather that the English called 

 the Hawthorn "May,"' from the month in which it tiowered, than that the 

 shrub gave its name to the month ? 



