101 



protoconclia of the two species last mentioned, no representatives 

 of them being in the Museum. 



Dimensions. — Length 50 mm.; breadth 28 mm.; length of 

 aperture 30 mm.; protoconch, length 11mm., breadth 14 mm. 

 Professor Tate describes a specimen exceeding 150 mm. in length 

 and 90 mm. in breadth. 



Form, and Loc. — Eocene : Muddy Creek, Victoria. 



G. 9351. An example of the neanic stage of growth. Purchased. 



Subgenus ATJLICA, Gray {em. Crosse). 



[Proc. Zool. Soc. 1847, p. 141 ; II. and A. Adams, Genera Recent Moll. vol. i. 

 1853, p. 160 {partim) ; em. Journ. de Conchy!. Z" ser. t. xi. 1871, p. 281.] 



Shell oval - oblong, more or less ventricose ; protoconch 

 regularly coiled, turbinate or trochoid, elevated, smooth or 

 obscurely lineated ; whorls of the spire smooth, spinose at the 

 periphery, the nodulations being distant and situated on broad, 

 short costse in the adult ; columellar plications commonly four 

 in number. 



This is very closely related to the subgenus Vespertilio, Klein 

 {em.), the principal differentiating character being the protoconch, 

 which in Aulica is, typically, smooth, whilst in Vespertilio it is 

 crenulated. The fossil forms here described appear to be the 

 common ancestors of the living forms of the two subgenera 

 mentioned, and in general shape they approach also the earlier 

 (stock) Volutilithes, from which they differ, however, very 

 markedly in the characters of the larval shells. 



Ti/pe. — Valuta aulica, Sowerby. 



Voluta (Aulica) strophodon, M'Coy. 



1876. Voluta strophodon, M'Coy, Prod. Pal. Vict. dec. iv. p. 25, pi. ssxvii. 



figs. 2-4 e. 

 1878. Voluta strophodon, E. Etheridge, jun., Cat. Aust. Foss. p. 170. 



1888. Voluta iveldii, Johnston, Gaol. Tasmania, pi. xxx. fig. 7 {iion 



figs. 6, 64). 



1889. Voluta strophodon, Tate, Trans. Roy. Soc. South Aust. vol. xi. p. 134. 



Considerable analogy exists between this species and certain 

 well-known forms of Volutilithes ; the protoconch is the chief dis- 

 tinguishing feature. The form of V. stropliodon varies considerably : 



