108 PROCEEDINGS OF THE MALACOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 



DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES OF MINUTE MARINE SHELLS 

 FROM BOMBAY. 



By J. Cosmo Melvhl, M.A., F.L.S., etc. 



Read IQth April and 8th Mai/, 1896. 



PLATE VIII. 



In November, 1892, conjointly with Mr. Alexander Abercrombie, of 

 Bombay, I published' a Catalogue of about 320 species of marine | 

 Mollusca, that had been collected by the latter gentleman during ; 

 three successive seasons on the shores of this favoured, specialized, , 

 and little explored centre. Specialized, Bombay is certainly proved j 

 to be in this particular, since many showy species would seem to f 

 have made her coasts their headquarters ; and, besides, in the : 

 Catalogue just referred to, no less than twenty -five were signalized ; 

 as novelties, many belonging to the more attractive genera, e.g., i 

 I'tirpura, Mnrex, TelUna, and Raeta. At the same time a few of the j 

 "minutiora" were described and figured, and a far larger number i 

 set aside for future investigation. These have received welcome | 

 additions by an assortment of two further boxes of shell-shingle, I 

 kindly forwarded a year ago by Mr. Abercrombie ; which, while ; 

 yielding further specimens of nearly all the smaller species first i 

 enumerated, likewise provided fresh material in the way of many J 

 novelties. i. 



The moUuscan fauna of Bombay being, as already observed, well !i 

 differentiated and specialized, it is rendered a simpler task than might I 

 be thought, to discriminate such forms as are now to be described, j 

 No dredgings, scientifically made, have been carried out here — indeed, ij 

 I am informed, the configuration of these coasts is not satisfactory for \ 

 the piirpose — and no collections of the smaller species, excepting a ' 

 few by the Rev. Mr. Fairbank, of Bombay, and Messrs. H. F. and \ 

 W. T. Blanford, had been made, when a few species, e.g. Irawadia i! 

 trochlearis, Blanf., and Fairhanlcia Bonihayana, Blanf., were described, i 

 Mr. Geoffrey Nevill subsequently discovered a few, mainly Pleuro- 

 tomida3, and it is regrettable that his types are all in the Calcutta 

 Museum, and therefore inaccessible to most British conchologists. 

 Some, however, have been figured in the Journal of the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal. 



The Ceylon fauna and that of Karachi, the latter now being j 

 assiduously explored by Mr. F. W. Townsend, differ widely from 

 that of Bombay, though of course a few species are common to two 

 or all three of the localities. "We cannot think that, numerically, 

 the Bombay list will exceed 500 species (exclusive of brackish- water 

 forms such as Neritina, Potamides, etc.) ; and the publication of the 

 following twenty-six new forms, mainly belonging to the families 



1 Cf. Memoirs Manchester Lit. and PliiL Soc, series iv, vol. vii, pp. 17-51. 



