176 Miscellanea. [VOL. I, 



the Fauna of British India, that he had seen but two specimens, 

 one sent him by Mr. R. M. Dixon from Bor Ghat, Bombay, and 

 another collected by Signor Fea at Rangoon. 



C. A. Paiva. 



CRUSTACEA. 



A PREOCCUPIED SPECIFIC NAME IN MacYothnx. — In reference 

 to a species described in his recent paper {Rec. Ind. Mus., I, p. 25, 

 June, 1907) on Indian Freshwater Entomostraca, Mr. R. Gurney 

 writes under date June 7th, 1907, as follows : " L find that I have 

 used in my last paper a name already used, viz. Macrothrix tenui- 

 cornis. Kurz used it many years ago for M. rosea. If possible, 

 will you change the name of my species to Macrothrix odiosa." 

 Unfortunately the letter arrived after the paper had been issued, 

 but Macrothrix odiosa should stand as a correction. 



MOLLUSCA. 



An enemy of certain Pearl Oysters in the Persian 

 GuEF. — A number of specimens of Pearl Oysters from the Persian 

 Gulf have recently been sent to the Indian Museum for identifica- 

 tion ; they belong to the three species mentioned by Evans in the 

 Proc. Roy. Phys. Sac. Edinburgh for 1892, namely, Avicula macroptcra 

 (local name zanni), Meleagrina vulgaris (local name muhar), and 

 M. margaritifera (local name sadifi), the last representing Jamie- 

 son's var. pcrsica. Nearly all the shells of A. macroptcra and a few 

 of those of M. margaritifera had been injured by the burrows of a 

 mussel, which Mr, H. B. Preston has identified as Lithodomus 

 malaccanus , Reeve. The burrows in the shells were not vertical, 

 but nearly horizontal ; they were cylindrical, rounded at the end 

 and not much longer than the mussel. Their diameter was, how- 

 ever, sufhciently great to have injured the inner layers of the pearl 

 shell in many instances and to have caused the deposit of irregular 

 masses of dark nacre on the internal surface. The outer layer 

 was generally more or less broken above the burrows and in such 

 places had almost invariably been attacked by the boring sponge 

 Clione. The mussel itself had in some cases been attacked by 

 another borer, which had made comparatively large circular holes 

 in one of its valves. Lithodomus malaccanus is not mentioned by 

 Hardman among the enemies of the Ceylon Pearl Oyster, although 

 it is known to occur in the Gulf of Manaar ; it is recorded doubt- 

 fully by Melvill in his list of the shells of the Persian Gulf. 



N. AnnandaeE. 



The distribution in India of the African snail Achatina 

 fulica, Fer. — It is well known that this gigantic snail, introduced 

 from Mauritius, is common in the gardens of Calcutta and the neigh- 

 bourhood. As it is said to be spreading to other parts of India, I 

 should be very glad of specimens from any part ot the country not 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of Calcutta. The species is easily 



