Fossil Fatina, Table Cape Beds, Tasmania. 97 



guishes the former from the latter entirely on account of it being 

 proportionately broader, with more convex whorls, a larger 

 though similar pull us, and the jDresence of five columellar plaits 

 instead of four. After examining fifty-five examples of V. mac- 

 coyii from the Victorian beds, together with the twelve specimens 

 from Table Cape, I find considerable variation in the proportion 

 of length to breadth, in the convexity of the whorls, in the size 

 of the pullus, and though four columellar plaits seem to be the 

 usual number, I have nine examples of the slender form with 

 five columellar plaits and one example of the broad form with 

 four columellar plaits. It is hardly necessary to mention that, 

 if extreme forms of this species be taken for comparison with 

 one another, one might at first sight experience considerable 

 difficulty in regarding them as the same species, but when a 

 large series of specimens is critically and carefully examined, 

 one is forced to the conclusion that the best method is to regard 

 the species as a variable one, and when we see that this is not an 

 uncommon feature in our Volutes — for example, V. anticingulata, 

 McCoy, V. atitiscalaris, McCoy, V. strophodon, McCoy, and V. 

 weldii, T. "Woods — considerable strength is lent to this conclusion. 



34. Voluta pellita, Johnston. 



Id., Johnston, P.R.S.Tas., 1879, p. 36, and Geo. Tas., 1888, 

 pi. xxx., fig. 2. 



Observations. — Professor Tate places this species in his unclas- 

 sified list, remarking that it may possibly be V. ancilloides., Tate, 

 or V. inacroptera, McCoy. I cannot regard it as identical with 

 either of these species. V. ancilloides, Tate, is a common Table 

 Cape fossil, and the present species difiers from it in a very 

 marked manner in general habit and dimensions ; the pullus is 

 smaller, less convex, and has a prominently exsert tip ; the spire 

 is much more slender ; the apertural characters are, however, of 

 the same type in both species. I have not yet seen any examples 

 of V. macroptera., McCoy, from the Table Cape beds. Professor 

 Tate records this species based upon examples in the Hobart 

 Museum. It is, however, just possible that imperfect examples 

 of V. pellita., Johnston, may have been mistaken for this species. 

 V. pellita differs from V. macroptera in that the whorls are not 



H 



