428 Frederick (J/utptnan : 



Santa Cruz beds of Patagonia. To settle any disputed points 

 as to the relationship of our Victorian (Janjukian) species, the 

 writer has been helped by the kindness of Mr. Chas. Hedley, the 

 Assistant Curator of the Australian Museum, who has presented 

 to the National Museum collection a typical example of the shell 

 from the same series whence the original type was obtained. 

 Sowerby, in his description of Z. insolita says,l it is " smooth 

 on the outside, and destitute of radiating ridges." The Santa 

 Cruz specimen to which I have referred shows, however, that 

 the shell is relieved by concentric lines of growth, and these are 

 crossed by faint, but undoubted incised radii, which are more 

 pronounced on the edges of the growth-lines ; and on one part, 

 on the posterior angle, the p.seudo-divergent character of the 

 striae is visible. 



The New Zealand specimens, of which we also have examples 

 in the Museum collection, bear the same characters as stated above. 

 Zittel's specimen seems to have been a particularly smooth one, 

 as, in describing this shell in his " Fossile Mollusken and Echino- 

 dermen aus Neu Seeland,"''^ he says: — "Die Aussenseite tragt 

 keine Radialstreifen oder Rippen, ist fast glatt und nur mit einer 

 schwachen concentrischen Zuwachstreifung bedeckt."' 



To give some idea of the prevailing confusion in regard to the 

 identity of specimens of this genus by later authors, we may 

 mention that Prof. Tate quotes McCoy's determination of L, 

 aurita for the specimens from Mornington, and his own, from 

 Muddy Creek (at neither of which places, by the way, does it 

 occur) ; Bird Rock (McCoy) and Table Cape, Tasmania 

 (K. M. Johnston). Further, under L. insolita in the same work, 

 Tate correctly gives the localities of Aldinga Bay, Ade- 

 laide Bore, New Zealand and Patagonia. Another author, 

 G. F. Harris refers specimens from S. Australia and New Zealand 

 to L. insolita^; whilst on p. 346 of the same work he records 

 L. aurita as from the Miocene of Awamoa, NeAV Zealand, a 

 typical locality for /v. insolita. With reference to the latter 

 species he remarks — " There appears to be no conchological 

 difference between the European and Australasian examples of 



1 Loo. cit., 2nd ed., p. 608. 



2 Reise der " Novara." Geol. Theil., vol. i., At)th. ii., 1SU4, p. 48. 



3 Cat. Tert. Moll., Brit. .Mus., pt. i., Australasia, 1S!)7, p. 344. 



