A NEW AUSTRALIAN VOLTE — HEDLEY. 



309 



A NEW AUSTRALIAN VOLUTE. 

 By Charles Hedley, Oonchologist. 



VOLUTA 



Sp. 710V. 



PERPLICATA, 



(Fig. 23). 

 Shell broadly fusiform, concave beneath the suture, angled at 

 the shoulder, tapering to the base, solid, glossy. Colour. — On a 

 white ground are disposed numerous distant waved narrow longi- 

 tudinal orange lines; beneath the shoulder and periphery are faint 



broad suffused spiral bands of the 

 same colour. Sc^ilpture.-Ahout nine 

 longitudinal ribs gradually arise in 

 the centre of the whorl, enlarge 

 rapidly, and terminate suddenly in 

 blunt tubercles on the shoulder. 

 These tubercles are continued on 

 the upper whorls, and, becoming finer 

 and closer, pass into the ribbing of 

 the apex. Basal funicle distinct, 

 distorting the colour pattern and 

 entering the aperture between the 

 third and fourth fold. Whorls six, 

 of which three are apical, the latter 

 oblique to the axis of the remainder 

 and causing the fiist adult whorl to 

 be more immersed at one side. Aper- 

 ture narrow, columella with six pli- 

 cations, the topmost doubled in one 

 example, becoming smaller and more 

 transverse as they ascend. Length, 

 75 mm ; breadth, 32 mm. 



I purchased three specimens from 

 a beche-de-mer fisherman in Cairns, 

 Queensland, in August, 1901. The 

 seller had forgotten the exact locality, but said he had taken them 

 either on the neighbouring reefs of the Great Barrier, or on one 

 of the atolls of the Coral Sea. 



Among known species, V. jjerplicaia is only akin to V. thatcheri, 

 McCoy. It resembles that species in the remarkable multiplica- 

 tion of the columella plaits, and in general size, shape, and colour. 

 The novelty is shorter and broader than its fellow. In my species 

 the colour pattern is narrow flexous stripes, in McCoy's a network. 

 V. perplicata is especially distinguished by a low ribbed apex, 

 whereas that of V. thatcheri, as shown in Prevost's figure,' is 

 smooth and elevated. 



1 Prevost — .Tourn. de Couch.^ xxi., 1873, pi. i., fig. 1. 



