g8 ■ENDEAVOUR" SCIEISTIFIG RESULTS. 



its favour. 1 But Deshayes proposed his name tor a New 

 Zealand shell figured and described by Quoy and Gaimard as 

 Venericardia australis, Lamarck. Actually, Deshayes indi- 

 cated for his species PI. 80, i. 4 of the "Astrolabe" Atlas, but 

 that illustration stands for a Tridacua, and the quotation is 

 an evident error for PI. 70, f. 12-14. ^ he account of Quoy 

 and Gaimard did not profess to introduce a new species but 

 merely to restore the J . australis of Lamarck, 2 a small, sub- 

 orbicular, purple, scale-ribbed shell from New Holland, not 

 otherwise figured. The contention of Desha}es was that the 

 Australian shell of Lamarck was wrongly identified with the 

 New Zealand shell of the "Astrolabe" Expedition. Regard- 

 ing the latter as a new and nameless species, he proposed to 

 call it Cardita quoyi.^ Until the Lamarckian tvpe, now 

 probably in the Geneva Museum, can be re-examined, we 

 cannot judge whether Quoy and Gaimard were right in their 

 identification, and consequently whether Deshayes was, or 

 was not, justified in renaming their shell. But there can be 

 no doubt that Reeve erred in reducing W'nericardia australis 

 to a synonym of I', tridentata, Say.'' 



In any case the verdict does not affect the name before us. 

 Our species is quite different from that figured in the "Astro- 

 labe" Atlas, and to which, if it be maintained, the name of 

 "g»oy/" can only apply. Incidentally it may be remarked 

 that this name has never been adopted^ by tlie conchologists 

 of New Zealand whom it chiefly concerns. 



]'. australis, Lamarck, is not the only species of the genus 

 that local workers have failed to recognise. Cardita {Acti}i- 

 oholus) godefjroyi, Dunker,^ from Bass .Strait, is here un- 

 known. I suggest that it is likel\' to pro\e identical with 

 V . bimaculata, Deshayes. 



After being unseen for nearly forty \ears, the Cardita 

 raoidi, Angas,^ has been rediscovered by Mr. \V. L. May^ 

 in 40 fathoms off Schouten Island, Tasmania. Probably this 

 is what Clessin intends by Cardita racuti, Angas (MS.), from 

 New Zealand. 5 



1 Tate— Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, xxvi., 1901. p. 434 



2 Lamarck— Anim. Sans Vert., v., 1818, p. 610. 



3 Deshayes— Proc. Zool. Soc. 1852 (1854), p. 103. 



4 Reeve— Conch. Icon., i., 1843, Cardita sp. 22. 



5 Suter— Index Faunae Nov. Zeal., 1904, p. 93. 



6 Dunker-Malak. Blatt.. xviii., 1871, p. 172; Schmeltz-Cat. Mu^s. Godeff.. 



v., 1874, p. 173; Clessin— Conch. Cab., Lief. 355, 1887, p. 12, pi. iv., f. 6, 7. 



7 Angas— Proc. Zool. Soc. 1872, p. 613, pi. xlii., f. 12. 



8 May— Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasm., 1910 (1911), p. 312. 



9 Clessin-Oj).fi7., p. 11. pi. ii., figs. 7, 8. 



