Boone, Mollusca, Cruises of "Ara" and "Alva" 309 



lusks to the primitive peoples, who used the slug as food, usually 

 wrapped in banana leaves and baked on hot stones. The shell was 

 used variously as a cooking utensil, dish, spoon, or a boat bailer, 

 for making a shield in primitive armour or as a handle to a 

 womerah (weapon). Dr. Hedley gives a list of the various native 

 names by which the species is known to the aborigines of Aus- 

 tralia (1909). 



The first description of the egg-mass and neanic shell of this 

 large mollusk was given by Kesteven (1903) on material presum- 

 ably obtained near Sydney. Bancroft (1908) described a large 

 egg-mass from material he found on Dunk Island. In 1910 J. Edgar 

 Smith published additional remarks on more material from the 

 same island, which he obtained from Mr. A. J. Jukes-Brown, who 

 had it, together with notes and a photograph (apparently unpub- 

 lished) , from Mr. Bancroft. This egg-mass was approximately the 

 same size and shape of the one secured by the "Alva" at Southport, 

 Queensland. 



The species is ovoviviparous. 



Dr. John D. MacDonald, R. N. (1879), records that specimens 

 of Cymbium fiammeum from Sharks Bay, W. Australia, were 

 found to be infested in the respiratory siphon with a trematode, 

 Aspidogaster macdonaldi Monticelli. 



References : Cymbium flammeum, Bolten, J. F., Museum Bol- 

 tenianum, 1798, (2), p. 151, cited for Martini Conch. Cab., 

 1777, Bd. Ill, p. 59, pi. 74, fig. 780.— Hedley, C, Proc. Linn. 

 Soc. N. S. W., 1909, vol. XXXIV, p. 452 (first use of Bolten's 

 name) ; Proc. of Sect. D, Rept. 12th Meet. Austral. Assoc. 

 Adv. Sci., Brisbane, 1909, (1910), p. 342. 



Voluta diadema, Lamarck, J. B., Ann. des Mus. Paris, 1811, t. 

 XVII, p. 57. 



Voluta ducalis, Lamarck, J. B., Anim. sans Vert., 1844, t. X, 

 p. 377. 



Melo diadema, Reeve, L., Conch., Icon., 1862, vol. 14, pi. 14. — 

 Tryon, G. W., Man. Conch., 1882, vol. IV, p. 81, pi. 23, figs. 

 22-28. 



Cymbium aethiopicum, Bancroft, E. J., The Confessions of a 

 Beachcomber, 1908, p. 145 (describes egg-case and larvae). 



