224 Transactions. — Zoology. 



Akt. XXIV. — Notes on tlte Larger Species of Paryphanta in 

 Neic Zealand, ivith some Remarks on the Distribution and 

 Dispersal of Land-shells. 



By W. T. L. Teavers, F.L.S. 



[Bead before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 22nd August, 1894.} 



I have placed on the table this evening four specimens of the 

 larger species of Paryphanta found in these Islands. The 

 earliest of the species in order of discovery is P. busbyi, so named 

 in honour of the late Mr. James Busby, the first Besident Agent 

 of the Crown in New Zealand. The next is P. hochstetteri, 

 so called by Pfeiffer who first examined it, after the late 

 Professor Von Hochstetter, by whom the first specimen of this 

 species was found near some ponds on the Dun Mountain 

 Pass, between Nelson and the Pelorus Valley. Specimens of 

 the third shell have been found in the Collingwood district, 

 on Stephens Island at the western entrance to Cook Strait, 

 and in the Manawatu and Waikanae districts, in this Island. 

 This latter shell has not yet been authoritatively described, and 

 I am informed by Professor Hutton that he and Mr. Suter have 

 agreed, for the present at all events, in treating it as only a 

 variety of hochstetter i, and so not entitled to a distinct name. 

 It is provisionally called the dark hochstetteri, a name based 

 upon the fact that in all the specimens hitherto obtained the 

 inferior half of the shell is nearly black, whilst the superior 

 surface resembles in colour and markings what I assume to 

 be the typical hochstetteri, the inferior half of which is usually 

 of the same colour as the superior one, and similarly marked. 

 In treating this shell as a mere variety of hochstetteri, Hutton 

 and Suter have no doubt taken into consideration a coincid- 

 ence in the number and character of the whorls, and the close 

 resemblance in the forms of the umbilicus, in the two shells. 

 It may be, however, that further examination, and especially 

 of the animal which inhabits it, will lead to its receiving 

 specific distinction ; but this is matter for the future. 



Specimens of the fourth shell have, so far as I personally 

 know, only been obtained from the ranges of hills in the 

 neighbourhood of Picton, but Sir James Hector tells me that 

 he believes that specimens much resembling the Picton ones 

 have been found in the Manawatu district. Singularly enough, 

 the Picton shells are usually treated by collectors as represent- 

 ing the typical hochstetteri of Pfeiffer, whereas the drawing 

 in Hochstetter' s work on New Zealand, which is now before 

 you, shows clearly enough that the shell found by him closely 

 resembles the shell now exhibited from the Museum collection, 



