MOLLUSCA. — HEDLEY, 67 



Ancilla coccinea, sp. nov. 



(Plate x„ fig. 3.) 



From eighty or ninety miles west of Eucla and in from seventy 

 five to a hundred and forty fathoms, Dr. Verco reported a salmon 

 coloured Ancilla, which he identified as A. mucronata, Sower by. 

 Three more specimens from corresponding depths a little further 

 west have reached me. 



It is now suggested that subsequent writers have transferred 

 this name of Sowerby's from one species to another and that the 

 form discovered by Dr. Verco should properly be regarded as 

 nndescribed. A. mucronata was introduced by Sowerby in 

 1830 and was figured from a single specimen of unknown origin. 

 As the same author afterwards remarked in the " Thesaurus," it 

 seemed related to A. australis, Sowerby, 1 A. rubiginosa, 

 Swainson, and to A. angustata, Sowerby. For A. mucronata, 

 and as from Tasmania, Reeve has figured another species 

 different from Sowerby's in form, colour, and especially in the 

 grooving of the base. I think that A. mucronata, Reeve 2 not 

 Sowerby, is a growth stage of A. australis, Sowerby, in which 

 the " mncronate " apex becomes so by projecting from the mass 

 of callus which envelopes the spire. 3 Another form of this 

 species is A. pyramidalis, Reeve. Though Tasmania was 

 given by Reeve as the habitat of his A. mucronata, no one has 

 since found it there. Since the " Challenger " Expedition 

 procured it in Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand, the 

 Dominion may be regarded as the proper locality. Tenison 

 Woods 4 thought that it occurred as a Tertiary fossil at Table 

 Cape, Tasmania, but subsequent writers referred the fossil to 

 A. pseudaustralis, Tate. 5 My conclusion is that Reeve mis- 

 interpreted the " mucronata " of Sowerby, substituting for it a 

 form of A. australis, and perpetrated a second error by ascrib- 

 ing the substitute to Tasmania instead of to New Zealand. 



The original figure of A. mucronata differs from the West 

 Australian species by having an internal furrow ending in a 

 spur on the lip, by three or four broad spiral furrows on the 

 base, by lacking the inferior brightly coloured callus zone, by 



1 Sowerby — Species Conch., 1830, Ancillaria, p. 8, pi. ii., figs. 47-48; 

 Id., Thes. Conch., iii., 1859, p. 63. 



2 Reeve — Conch. Icon., xv., 18(34, Ancillaria, pi. iv., fig. 10. 



3 Harris— Brit. Mus. Cat, Austr. Tert. Moll., 1897, p. 77. 



4 Ten. Woods— Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasm., 1877 (1879), p. 30. 



5 Pritchard— Proc. Roy. Soc. Vict., viii.j (n.s.), 1896, p. 104. 



