GASTEROPODA i 93 



This species is most nearly allied to the Kermadec Island A. kermadecensis, Powell, 1927, 

 but differs in being proportionately wider and in having more numerous spiral lirations. 



Genus Merelina, Iredale, 191 5 

 Type (original designation) : Rissoa cheilostoma, Ten. Woods 

 Merelina paupereques, n.sp. (Plate LII, fig. 10). 



Shell small, solid, clathrate, white, rather squat and wide. Whorls 4-f, including a 

 typical protoconch of if whorls, sculptured with seven spiral threads. Suture narrowly 

 margined above. Spire whorls with two strong keels, the shoulder relatively much 

 wider than the other interspaces. Body whorl with two more equally strong keels 

 situated upon the upper part of the base, one proceeding from the lower suture. Close 

 in to the columella there are two weak spiral threads. The axials are thin, rather weaker 

 than the spirals and slightly closer in spacing; they become weakly nodulous at the 

 points of intersection with the spirals, and the enclosed rectangular spaces are sharply 

 outlined. The axials barely reach the upper suture and they fall short of the first basal 

 keel. Aperture circular. Peristome continuous, strengthened on the outside by a strong 

 varix. 



Height 2-1 mm.; diameter 1-4 mm. (Holotype). 



Habitat: 60 fathoms off Poor Knights Islands, New Zealand, St. 933 (Holotype). 

 Imperfect specimens from St. 934, 92 m. 



Related to the writer's compacta (1927, p. 537), having the same squat shape, but 

 larger and with the spiral keels, although the same in number, different in detail and 

 relative spacing. 



The writer is indebted to Dr H. J. Finlay for the opportunity of describing this 

 species. 



Merelina manawatawhia, n.sp. (Plate LII, fig. 8). 



Shell small, fragile, white; clathrate, but with the axials slightly stronger than the 

 spirals; rather tall and narrow. Whorls 5I, including typical protoconch of if whorls, 

 sculptured with six spiral threads (worn almost smooth in holotype). Suture narrowly 

 margined above. Spire tall, about twice height of aperture. The post-nuclear sculpture 

 is of strong rounded axials, fourteen per whorl, with interspaces of about four times 

 their width. The spiral cords are narrower and weaker than the axials, which at the 

 points of intersection are rendered angulate and weakly nodulose. On the spire whorls 

 there are three equispaced spiral cords, and on the last whorl, in addition, the sutural 

 cord and three basal ones. The entire surface of the post-nuclear whorls is sculptured 

 with dense spiral striations. Aperture small, oblique-oval, very heavily variced ex- 

 ternally. The outline of the whorls is strongly convex, with the periphery above the 

 middle and the sutures deeply indented. On the body whorl the axials rapidly diminish 

 below the periphery and fade out entirely about the uppermost of the basal spirals. 



Height 1-75 mm.; diameter 0-98 mm. (Holotype). 



Habitat: Off Three Kings Islands, St. 933, 260 m. 



