CANARIAN GROUP. 465 



Fam. 5. AURICULID.E. 

 Genus 15. AURICULA, Lam. 



Auricula sequalis. 



Melampus sequalis, Lowe, Zool. Journ. v. 288. t. 13. f. 1- 



5 (1835) 



Auricula sequalis, Id. 9 Proc. Zool. Soc. Loud. 217 (1854) 

 Vulcani, Morel., Hist. Nat. des Acor. 207. t. 5. 



f. 8 (1860) 

 Mouss., Faun. Mai. des Can. 135 



(1872) 

 Watson, Journ. de Conch. 220 (1876) 



Habitat Teneriffam ; a Dom. Grrasset (sec. Morelet) reperta. 



I had not myself any opportunity for searching the tide- 

 washed rocks at the Canaries ; and as Mr. Lowe had no leisure 

 for examining them either, we did not obtain any Auriculas 

 except the A. bicolor, Morel., which swarms along the edges of 

 the Salinas, or brine-pits, in the extreme north of Lanzarote. 

 There can be little question however that the A. cequalis, 

 which is so common at the Salvages and Madeira, would be met 

 with abundantly were the proper localities explored ; and indeed 

 I have already given my reasons for concluding (vide ante, 

 p. 269) that the A. Vulcani, of Morelet, which is said to have 

 been found by Grrasset in Teneriffe, is in reality a mere phasis 

 of the cequalis in which the outer lip of the aperture is 

 thickened at about its middle point into a slight dentiform cal- 

 losity ; for the only other character on which its specific claims 

 were made to rest consists in the presence of a few impressed 

 spiral lines towards the base of the shell, a feature which is so 

 utterly worthless (as a distinctive one) that I find it con- 

 spicuously expressed in many examples which are, without 

 doubt, referable to the cequalis proper. Indeed it is a tendency 

 of this particular species to possess them, for they are just as 

 often traceable, and just as often obsolete, in both forms, i. e. 

 in the one (corresponding to the normal state) in which the 

 right margin of the peristome is entirely simple, and in that in 

 which it is gradually more or less provided internally with a 

 small tubercle or tooth. So that I have no hesitation whatever 

 in registering the A. cequalis as Canarian. 1 



1 A Pedipes is stated (vide Brit. Mus. Cat. Can. Shells, Append. 29; 1854) 

 to have been found by the late Mr. MacAndrew on the rocks at Orotava, in 

 the north of Teneriffe ; yet, although there can be little doubt that the afra 

 is the particular species alluded to, nevertheless since this is not asserted 

 absolutely to be the case, and I have no opportunity of inspecting the 

 examples, I cannot actually record the P. afra as a member of the Canariaii 

 fauna. 



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