144 MATTHEWS : HABITAT OF THE GENUS EPHIPPODONTA. 



On the whole, Semper had a high opinion of malacology for the 

 solution of general zoological and biological problems. Writing to 

 me several years ago, he emphasised the fact that he had commenced 

 his career by malacological work. His treatise on " Pulmonate 

 Anatomy" is the finest and most extensive we possess upon the 

 subject, and all malacologists will deeply regret the loss of so 

 devoted and brilliant a worker. 



ON THE HABITAT OF THE GENUS 

 EPHIPPODONTA (TATE). 



By E. II. MATTHEWS, 

 Yorkt' Town, South Australia. 



In the early part of 1886, my friend Mr. J. G. McDougall, an 

 ardent naturalist — since deceased — brought me several specimens of 

 Ephippodonta lunata (Tate), at the same time stating where and 

 under what conditions he had found them. Other specimens were 

 sent to Prof. Ralph Tate, of Adelaide University, who provisionally 

 described them as Scintilla lunata, and included the species in his 

 monograph forming part of the Royal Society's Proceedings for 

 18S6, the habitat recorded herein — " creeping on rocks at extreme 

 low tide'' — being very vague. In the Society's Proceedings for 1888, 

 a supplement was given by Prof. Tate, and he there figured another 

 species discovered under similar conditions by Mr. McDougall. 

 The new species he named Mcdougallii, after the finder. 



The additional specimens furnished by Mr. McDougall enabled 

 Prof. Tate to establish the new genus, Ephippodonta, so-called "in 

 allusion to the cardinal teeth riding as it were one on the other by 

 their tips, and not interlocking." This habitat now supplied was 

 more accurate, being " on the mud-formed burrow of a species of 

 shrimp sheltering beneath large stones, between tide-marks." 



In company with Mr. McDougall, during the Christmas holidays 

 of 1890, I took both species near the original locality. Since then 

 I have discovered this handsome genus in two other localities, thus 

 proving that its range is not so restricted as was feared. It is still, 

 however, rare and difficult to obtain. 



