348 Miscellaneous. 



insects principally belonging to the group of the Rhynchophora or 

 Weevils. One of the figures given by that celebrated naturaUst 

 represents a inining larva which lives in the leaves of the Mallow, 

 and which is evidently a species of Trachys. — Comptes Rendus, Feb. 

 16th, 1857, p. 314. 



On a Monstrosity of Haliotis (albicans?). 

 By John Edward Gray, Ph.D., F.R.S., etc. 



Mr. Cuming kindly showed to me a series of four specimens of 

 Ear-shells, which he procured in Paris, and of which he has some 

 other examples. 



The four specimens are all peculiar for having an elongated con- 

 tinued slit occupying the place where the series of perforations is 

 usually situated, — this slit extending more than one-third of the 

 length of the spiral ridges on the outer or left side of the whorls ; 

 but it does not extend to the margin of the shell, and there is 

 generally a more or less deep pit on the inner surface, in front of 

 its extremity. 



When I first saw the shell, I was inclined to regard it as a mon- 

 strosity ; but when I considered the uniformity of the peculiarity 

 in the specimens which I possess, and in those which Mr. Cuming 

 had seen, I thought that it might be the type of a new form, for 

 which Schismotis excisa would be a good name. 



But a comparison of the shell with the specimens of Haliotis al- 

 bicans m the British Museum from Van Diemen'sLand, has induced 

 me to believe that they are only varieties of that or some very nearly 

 allied species, and that the peculiarity of their structure is produced 

 by the locality they inhabit, the absence of the shelly matter on the 

 branchial ridge being probably produced by the continued abrasions 

 to which the shells have evidently been exposed, either by some che- 

 mical peculiarities in the water or the attack of parasitic animals. 



All the specimens are in a very eroded condition, and two of them 

 are very much pierced with a minute worm, and they all have the 

 under valve of a Hijiponyx attached on the left side near the circum- 

 ference of the shell ; one of these shells (which is generally the 

 largest of the series) being placed in front of the slit between its 

 termination and the front margin of the shell, covering the space 

 which in the normal shell would be the place of one or two perfora- 

 tions. 



If the exterior surface of a good specimen of Haliotis albicans is 

 examined, it will be found that there exists a distinct narrow straight 

 groove continued from one perforation to the other, and to the margins 

 of the outer lip, which I have not seen so distinctly marked in any 

 other species of the genus, indicating probably the suture between 

 the overlapping of the two sides of the slit in the mantle of the animal, 

 and this suture is marked but by a slight line on the inner surface 

 of the shell. The same suture is to be observed in most other 

 Haliotidce, but they are generally not so distinct as in H. albicans, 

 and much more sinuous. 



