66 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF QUEENSLAND. 



Marine Mollusca from New Guinea. 



By John Shirley^ D.Sc, F.M.S., Corresponding Member, 

 Roj^al Society of Tasmania ; Honorary Member, Pharma- 

 ceutical Society of Queensland. 



{Read before Royal Society of Queensland, 11th April, 1923.} 



In a recent visit to New Guinea, Professor J. V. Danes, 

 Ph.D., Consul-General for Czecho-Slovakia, travelled in 

 British Papua, and in the mandated territory lately known as 

 German New Guinea. He was accompanied by his charming 

 and accomplished wife, who at Samarai, Gurya Beach, Rabaul, 

 and Port Moresby made collections of marine shells. These 

 were submitted to me for determination, and a classified 

 list is shown herewith. As the time spent at each place of call 

 was limited, few of the smaller species were gathered, and the 

 list reveals few novelties. 



The first collection of New Guinea Mollusca seems to 

 have been made in 1842-6, when H.M.S. " Fly," under Captain 

 F. R. Blackwood, was employed in surveying the North 

 Australian and South Papuan coasts. On board this ship 

 was Dr. J. Beete Jukes, who diligently searched for mollusca 

 on all possible occasions. His collections were described 

 mainly by Arthur Adams and Lovell Reeve, while Dr. J. E. 

 Gray dealt with certain important discoveries in an appendix 

 to Jukes's narrative. 



This survey was contmued and extended by H.M.S. 

 " Rattlesnake" in 1849-50, when the Louisiade Islands were 

 visited and collections made, to be afterwards described by 

 Forbes in an appendix to MacGHlivray's account of the voyage. 

 The " Challenger" M'hile in Torres Strait, at Station 188, on 

 10th September, 1874, dredged off south-west of Papua. An 

 exj)edition organized in 1875 by Sir William Macleay left 

 Sydney in the " Che vert," having on its scientific staff such 

 well-known Australian workers as Messrs. Brazier, Masters, 

 Petterd, and Spalding ; and called at Yule Island where Brazier 

 gathered many new species of shells, whose descriptions, with 

 those from Australian localities, will be found in his numerous 

 papers in series 1, vols. 1 and 2 of the Linnean Society's Pro- 

 ceedings,^ New South Wales. During 1875 and following 



1 See also vol. ix, pp. 988-992, and vol. x, pp. 8-41-4, first series. 



