^7 



NOTES ON A COLLECTION OF 



MARINE SHELLS FROM LIVELY ISLAND, FALKLANDS, 



WITH LIST OF SPECIES. 



By J. COS.MO MELVILL and R. STANDEN. 



(I'late I., figs. 9-13; Plate II.). 



fRead before the Society, Feb. gth, 1898). 



Amongst the many recent additions to the collections of MoUusca 

 in the Manchester Museum, a series of marine shells collected by Miss 

 Cobb, at Shallow Bay, Lively Island, Falklands, is of particular 

 interest. A few other species have also been added to Miss Cobb's 

 collection, through the kindness of Mrs. Blake and Prof. D'Arcy 

 Thompson. References to the molluscan fauna of this part of the 

 world are somewhat meagre and scattered, so that the cataloguing of 

 an authentic and characteristic collection like the present is not 

 only an important local record, but also helps towards a better 

 knowledge of the geographical distribution of certain species. 



The archipelago of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas), forms a part 

 of the " Magellanic Province " of Woodward,^ which also includes the 

 coasts of Tierra del Fuego, and the mainland of South America from 

 Port Melo, on the east coast, to Concepcion, on the west. They are 

 situated in Lat. 51° 30° S., and cover a space of 120 by 60 

 geographical miles, or little more than half the size of Ireland. They 

 are a treeless expanse of moorland and bog, and bare and barren 

 rock, and their wild and rugged shores are washed by tempestuous 

 seas, swarming with mollusca and other forms of marine life, which 

 find ample shelter and sustenance amongst the dense masses of 

 "kelp" — a giant seaweed {Macrocvstis pyrifera) growing in profusion 

 on every tidal rock, and forming a barrier to the terrible breakers of 

 the western ocean, which no mass of rock not thus protected could 

 long withstand. Woodward assigns 45 species of mollusca to the 

 " province " in general, but gives only the following as being known 

 from the Falklands : — 



Scalaria hrevis 

 Margarita Dialvina 

 Fissurella radiosa 

 Patella barbara 

 P. zebrina 

 P. deaiirata 

 Scissurella conica 



Trochita pileolus 

 Astarte longirostris 

 Cyamium antarcticuin 

 Modiolarca trapeujia 

 Cardita thouarsii 

 Venus exalbida 

 Lyonsia inalvinensis 



He further remarks that " eleven of these have not been met with 

 elsewhere." 



I Manual of Concbology, 1880, p. S2. 



