720 STUDIES ON AUSTRALIAN MOLLUSCA, xii., 



The nomenclature of this species is also in an unsettled con- 

 dition. Deshayes* considered that, in 7'. succinctum^ Lamarck 

 had lumped three species; the first Mediterranean (apparently 

 partheyiopeus von Salis, 1793), the second Australian (apparently 

 australasue Perry, 1811), the third American (apparently ameri- 

 cdnum D'Orbigny, 1845). On the contrary, Boog Watson, t 

 though prejudiced in favour of division, was unable to separate 

 the Lamarckian aggregate. For a single species, there is here a 

 discontinuous distribution which is remarkable, as Watson notes 

 that it is absent across the whole Indian Ocean. In Australasia, 

 the range is singularly restricted. Suter| cites it from the Bay 

 of Islands to the Hauraki Gulf. Angas found it from Brisbane 

 to Sydney, and I can now add it from the Great Australian 

 Bight, where the " Endeavour" trawled it in 80-120 fathoms. 



I have not a series sufficient to decide whether the Sydney 

 shell ought to be reckoned as a geographical race or as an in 

 dependent species; but which ever it be, the current names can- 

 not be employed. For Hanley has shown that Murex oleariuni 

 Linn., referred to another species than Bern's costatum. Again, 

 Born's name was preoccupied by Pennant, so that if the species 

 be held to have a world-wide range, the name of von Salis must 

 be used, but, if restricted, that of Perry. 



POLINICES EPHEBUS, Sp.nOV. 



(Plate Ixxxii., figs.62, 63.) 

 Shell solid, obliquely ovate. Colour ferruginous, shading on 

 the base to buff. Whorls five, the last wound obliquely and 

 rapidly descending, flattened on the shoulder. Suture sharply 

 impressed. Surface in general smooth, under the lens fine 

 growth-lines are crossed by finer dense spiral scratches which 

 become coarser in the umbilicus. Aperture semilunate, the pos- 

 terior angle filled by a thick callus. This extends to the edge of 

 the umbilicus, continuing in a short brown lobe lightly impressed 

 by a median sulcus. Umbilicus narrow, but deep, containing a 

 large funicle. Height, 31; breadth, 26 mm. 



* Deshayes, Anim. s. vert., ix., 1843, p. 630, footnote. 



t Watson, Chall. Zool., xv., 1886, p. 390. 

 JSuter, Manual N.Z. Moll., 1913, p.305, PI. 43, fig.2. 



