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FURTHER NOTES ON AUSTRALASIAN SHIPWORMS. 



By C. Hedley, F.L.S. 



The results of studies in the rather neglected branch of 

 Australasian shipworms were published by this Society in Vol. 

 ix. (2nd Series), pp. 465-6 and 501-5, PI. xxxii. of these Proceedings. 

 Attention having thus been drawn to the subject, INIr. T. Steel 

 exhibited at the meeting of August 28th, 1895, specimens of a fine 

 undescribed species from Fiji, forwarded to him by Mr. T. 

 Ferguson from red gum (?) piles at Nausori Sugar Mill, on the Rewa 

 River. One perfect example of these measured two feet in total 

 length and fifteen millimetres across the valves when in natural 

 apposition, and is therefore probably capable of causing much 

 mischief. Mr. Steel informed the Society that, at the point where 

 these were procured, the river was not only fresh enough to drink, 

 but had been proved at intervals during two years' residence b}- 

 his own analyses, made in reference to the manufacture of sugar, 

 to be absolutely free from the least saline trace. The timber 

 containing them had been erected for two years. By the kanakas 

 who were employed to obtain these, the animals were greedily 

 devoured raw. Mr. Steel generously presented this specimen to 

 the Australian Museum that it might be reported on by myself. 

 Being reluctant to cut up so superb and unique a specimen I 

 delayed the examination of the species until the arrival of further 

 material. By the good offices of the same kind friend such has 

 now reached me from the Navua River, near the Tamunua Sugar 

 Mill, Fiji, where the stream is somewhat brackish at high tide. 

 Upon these the following account is based. 



The present is not the only instance known of a shipworm 

 flourishing in fresh water. Wright has published an interesting 

 account of one, Naasitoria dunlopei* which was proved to pass 



* Traus. Linn. Soc. xxiv. 1S64, pp. 451-4, PI. xxiv. 



