61 



ON THE DISCOVERY OF A PTEROPOD IX BRITISH EOCENE 

 STRATA, WITH THE DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES. 



By G. P. Harris, P.G.S., etc. 



2ie«d January l'2th, 1894. 



The Paris basin, so rich in the remains of fossil Tertiary Molhisca, 

 contains at least six species of Pteropoda, appertaining to the genera 

 Spinalis, Valvatina, Thecopsella, and SJuchilotheca ; but this group 

 has never been recorded, so far as I am aware, as occurring in the 

 Eocene or Oligocene beds of this country. Examining some fossil 

 MoUusca in the Edwards collection at the js\atural History Museum, I 

 found a specimen from Bracklesham which is an undoubted Pteropod, 

 belonging to the genus Euchilotheca (Fam. Cavoliniidse) ^ ; and -which 

 forms the subject of the present communication. 



EUCHILOTHECA, Fischer. 



Type. — Cleodora Farisiensis, Deshayes, Desc. Anim. sans Yert. 

 1861, t. 2, p. 187, pi. iii. figs. 15-17 {= Faginella (?) succincta, 

 Defrance). 



This differs from the closely allied genus Thecopsella, Munier- 

 Chalmas, by reason of its irregular shape, whilst its embi-yo is slightly 

 less dilated. M. Cossmann,- acting on the authority of M. Munier- 

 Chalmas, includes this genus amongst the Coscidae, though he seems 

 very doubtful as to the correctness of so doing. He remarks that the 

 classification of both this and Thecopsella will not be definitive until 

 longitudinal sections of the shells are cut to ascertain whether any 

 transverse septa are present, as in Ccecum. It seems to me, how- 

 ever, that this point is already resolved. M. Defrance^ and MM. 

 DoUfus and Raymond* give excellent figures of a longitudinal section 

 of E. succincta (the type of the genus), and no septa are shown ; 

 neither are any present in the English species about to be described. 

 I therefore follow MM. Deshayes, Fischer, Dollfus, Raymond and 

 other French autho'rs, in regarding Euchilotheca as a Pteropod. 



EUCHILOTHECA ELEGANS, U.sp. 



Gadus Goangustatus, Edwards MS. 



Sipho7iodentaliu)n breve, R. B. Xcwton. — Syst. List Edwards 

 Collection British Museum, 1891, p. 287. 



Shell elongate, cylindro-conical, tapering posteriorly, shining, 

 extremely thin and fragile, with no surface ornamentation; margin 



1 Fischer, Journ. Conchyl. (Paris), 1882, ser iii. t. xxii. p. 59. 



2 Ann. Soc. Roy. Malac. de Belgique, 1888, t. xxiii. p. 294. 



3 Diet. Sc. Nat. 1828, t Ivi. p. 427 ; Atlas Conchyl. pi. xcvii. figs. 5a, b. 

 * Auu. Soc Roy. Malac. de Belgique, 1885, t. xx. p. 43, pi. iii. itig. Ah. 



