MARINE MOLLUSCA. 
By Epear A. Smiry, I[.8.0. 
(With Plates XXXV. and XXXVI.) 
As the first collection of Marine Mollusca of any importance that has hitherto been 
obtained at the Maldive Islands, that about to be described is of considerable interest. It 
consists of about 380 different species and probably comprises a large proportion of the 
forms which occur in these islands. That many have escaped notice and will eventually be 
collected by others is quite certain, but it seems probable that most of the larger species 
are represented in this collection and that it is only among the smaller and obscurer forms 
that many additional species will hereafter be discovered. 
\ There are, however, certain common and widely distributed species which one would 
have expected to have been found, notably belonging to the genera Conus, Terebra, Sistrum, 
Purpura, Nassa, Oliva, Solarium, Trochus and Circe. It is also worthy of remark that 
certain genera which have representatives in the surrounding seas do not appear to have 
been met with. Of these I may mention Fasciolaria, Rissoa, Patella, Eulima, Hydatina, 
Aplysia, Umbraculum and Mytilus. 
As might be expected the fauna is similar to that of other islands in the Indian 
Ocean, many of the species occurring in Ceylon, Mauritius, Madagascar, the Amirantes, 
Seychelles, and a great many ranging as far north as the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. 
Rather more than a seventh of the forms have been recorded from the Andamans, and 
probably many others occur at these and the neighbouring Nicobar group. It is well known 
that great numbers of marine molluscs have a very wide range, and therefore it is not 
surprising that many, in fact about three-fourths, of the Maldive shells are known to occur 
in the seas surrounding the Philippine Islands and the Malay Archipelago, and still further 
north about one-fourth of the species have been recorded from the islands of Japan. In 
the Pacific, from the East coast of Australia to the Loyalty Islands and Polynesia, rather 
over three-sevenths of the Maldive species have been recorded, many of them ranging all 
over both the Indian Ocean and the Malay region also. About one-third of the species 
are known from Ceylon, but doubtless many more occur there, although they may not have 
been recorded. About 177 species have been found at the Mauritius, the fauna of which 
has been more extensively worked than that of the Seychelles. With regard to the general 
distribution of the species about to be recorded, it is curious to observe that a larger 
proportion of them have previously been noted from the China Sea eastward and in the 
Pacific, than in the Indian Ocean, including the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. 
The following table shows at a glance the distribution of the species as far as the 
writer has been able to ascertain without a very exhaustive search. The column under 
Malaysia includes species which occur in the China Sea, the Philippine Islands, Malay 
Archipelago, N. Australia, New Guinea, and as far east as the Solomon Islands. Under 
Polynesia are indicated the species which are met with either in E. Australia or at the 
Loyalty Islands, or at the various groups of islands of Polynesia. 
G1. 76 
