BY JOHN SHIRLEY. 7 



Mr. H. H. Bloomer, well known for his anatomical 

 studies of shell-fish, especially the genus Siliqua and its 

 allies, made a collection of marine shells during a visit to 

 Queensland in 1912. He submitted a small collection 

 of Moreton Bay bivalves to Mr. E. A. Smith. These were 

 chiefly Mactridse, and were dealt with by the conchologist 

 of the British Museum in the Proceedings of the Malaco- 

 logical Society.* The paper, by its table of synonymy, 

 sheds much long-needed light on species reported from 

 Queensland ; it makes a new species, M. queenslandica, 

 of a shell formerly distributed under various names, and 

 common in Moreton Bay. It also determines a common, 

 dirty-brown Mactra, to be picked up anywhere on the beach 

 at Caloundra, as M. tristis, Desh. This paper still further 

 accentuates the need for the continuation of Tryon's Manual 

 to include the Pelecypoda. 



As in other groups of animals the teeth of mollusks 

 are of assistance in the grouping of genera and the classifica- 

 tion of species. In the volume on " Molluscs and Brachio- 

 pods " of the Cambridge Natural History Series, the figures 

 of radulse or lingual ribbons, are all taken from original 

 specimens in the collection of the Revd. Professor H. M. 

 Gwatkin, D.D., M.A. At the request of the Professor 

 a number of Queensland shells, each containing the animal 

 and preserved in spirit, were forwarded to him, and 

 he very kindly returned a large number of mounted 

 radulee, of which many were Austrahan. These, when \^ewed 

 under the microscope, are among the most beautiful objects 

 in nature. 



In a presidential address of October 11th, 1914, entitled 

 ^' Some Molluscan Radulae " pubhshed in the " Journal 

 of Conchology " the value of a study of this branch of 

 anatomy is strikingly shown. Professor Gwatkin sta,tes : 

 " The distribution of Physa is anomalous. Like the 

 higher mammalia, it has not reached Australia and Poly- 

 nesia — at least all the Physas I have seen from those parts 

 have the radula of Isidora (including Physopsis). Never- 

 theless there is a true Physa {Physa compada, Gld.) from 

 the Hawaiian Islands Either we have overlooked Physas 



* Lrc. cit., Vol. XL, Pt. 2, pp. 137-151. 



