Iredale. — Neir Zealand Marine Molluscs. 385 



as above, with the remark, " This is a most important dis- 

 covery." 



This record adds a genus as well as a species to the New 

 Zealand molluscan fauna. 



Pyrene paxillus (Murdoch). 

 Columbella paxillus, Murdoch, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxxvii, 

 p. 224, 1904 (1905). 



This shell is not uncommon alive under dirty stones in 

 Lyttelton Harbour. I had differentiated it from the dark form 

 of Pyrene choava. Reeve, by means of its operculum before I 

 read Murdoch's description. It is furnished with a large oper- 

 culum, and as Pyrene transitans, Murdoch, and Pyrene huttoni, 

 Suter, are closely allied conchologically, they most probably alse> 

 possess such an appendage. 



Under dirty stones in Lyttelton Harbour there occurs another 

 Pyrene. This I had intended to describe, but I have just re- 

 ceived Hedley's " Mollusca of Masthead Reef, Capricorn Group, 

 Queensland " (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., vol. xxxii, p. 510). 

 In it he describes a shell as Pyrene lurida, Hedley. My shell 

 agrees very well with the description and figure, but without 

 comparison of specimens it would be unwise to attach the New 

 Zealand shell to that species. 



Recently I have found specimens of Pyrene choava, Reeve, 

 paired, and in each instance a dark shell was mated with a 

 light one. It may be that the change of coloration in this species 

 is a sexual characteristic. 



Since writing the preceding I have found numbers of Pyrene 

 huttoni, Suter, at Shag Point, Otago, and on the Otago Penin- 

 sula, and note that this species is possessed of an operculum 

 similar to that of P. paxillus, Murdoch. 



Leuconopsis obsoleta (Hutton). 

 Leuconia obsoleta, Hutton, Journ. de Conch., vol. xxvi, p. 42, 



1878 ; Man. N.Z. Moll., p. 34, 1880. Leuconopsis obsoleta, 



Hutton, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xvi, p. 213, 1883 (1884) ; 



Hedley, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., vol. xxv, pi. xlviii, fig. 16, 



1900. ' 



This shell would appear to be rare ; from north of Auckland 

 and Auckland are the- only published records of its occurrence. 

 The finding of a species of Leuconopsis under stones at high- 

 water mark in Lyttelton Harbour was therefore interesting, 

 but had been anticipated by the occurrence of oeld shells in 

 seaweed-washings. These shells did not fully agree with the 

 diagnoses and drawings of L. obsoleta, Hutton, nor with one 

 Auckland shell of that species I examined. As Webster (Trans. 

 13— Tranp. 



