246 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 
As AN ESCULENT. 
Though uninviting to the civilised eye, the Cobra are as 
human food both wholesome and palatable. By savages they are 
everywhere held in high esteem. An extract, quoted a few pages 
earlier from Backhouse, shows how it was relished in South 
Queensland. Old settlers have informed the writer that it was 
the same on the coastal rivers of New South Wales. Steel states 
(0) that in Fiji the kanakas greedily devour V. fluviatilis raw. 
In Venice the Teredo norvegica is eaten (p), and called “ bisse 
dei legni.” No doubt any carnivorous marine animal lucky 
enough to find a shipworm unprotected would consume it 
promptly. 
Naturat ENEMIES. 
‘Only one insidious enemy is known to follow the shipworm 
to the fastness of its burrow. In Europe the Zeredo is de- 
voured by the larva of an annelid worm in the same way that 
caterpillars are sometimes consumed by the larve of Ichneu- 
mon flies. The eggs of this predacious annelid, Verezs fuscata, 
probably gain admittance to the body of their victim through 
the inhalant siphon.* Once arrived, they hatch and feed on the 
entrails of their hosts. Most of our information on this subject 
is due to the Dutch (q). Of this predacious annelid, Grainger 
sententiously remarks :—“ Man finds in this predacious annelid 
a puissant ally against the shipworms” (7). 
Two species of Werevs, NV. jacksona and NV. languida, are 
known to inhabit Sydney Harbour (s). If our native species do 
not share with the European the habit of preying on shipworms, 
it is suggested that the European species might be introduced. 
Extraordinary success attended the acclimatisation of the Aus- 
tralian Friendly Lady-bird, NVoviws cardinalis, into American 
orchards, where it almost:exterminated the Cottony Cushion, or 
Fluted Scale, Zcerya purchasi. 
CLASSIFICATION. 
The nomenclature of the Australasian shipworms is in a state 
of considerable confusion, and it is, therefore, necessary to 
briefly review it. In engineers’ reports and similar documents, 
all shipworms are indiscriminately termed “ Teredo navalis.” 
As a matter of fact, neither the species navalis nor the genus 
(0) Steel in Hedley. Proc. Linn. Soc., N.S.W., Xxlii., 1898, p. 91. 
(p) Jeffreys. British Conchology, v., 1869, p. 193. 
(*) Under the name of Lycoris yuscata, de Hann, it is described and figured by von 
Bauhauer, Arch. Neerland, Sciences I., 1866, p. 22. Pl. ho adizese 
(q) Vrolik. Verslag. Akad. Amsterdam, x., 1860, pp. 162-4; xii., 1861, pp. 132-150 ; 
Xill., 1863, pp. 318-329. Abstract in Ann. Sci. Nat., xlii., Zool., 1860, pp. 309-313, and 
in Nostrands Magazine, iv., p. 466. 
(r) Grainger. Hist. Natur. de la France, Pt. vii. Moll., no date, p. 193. 
(s) Kinberg. Ofersight of K. Vetensk. Akad. Forhandlungar, 1865, p. 169. 
