2 
Prof. R. Owen on the Anatomy 
F.L.S., off Timor), and of the then unique specimen of 
Spirula australis , Lam., in the possession of Mr. Cuming, 
u perfect in all its parts except the termination of one of its 
tentacles”*. This specimen was found by Mr. Percy Earl 
on the shore at Port Nicholson, New Zealand, in a fresh 
state. 
The anatomical characters forming the main subject of the 
u monograph ” were derived from dissections of Admiral Sir 
Edward Belcher’s specimen : the uniqueness of the Cumingian 
one justified the wish of the eminent conchologist, its possessor, 
to retain it uncut f. 
At a later period Mr. Cuming was enabled to place in my 
hands the specimen (PI. I. fig. 1) from which the subjoined 
additional facts have been taken. 
The body of Spirula australis is divided into head and 
trunk. The head with its non-retractile arms forms about one 
third the length of the animal. It is a short, thick cylinder, 
slightly swollen on each side by the eyes, of which the tegu¬ 
mentary pupils (ib. a) open 7 millims. behind the bases of the 
arms. 
The trunk, or mantle, is elongate, subcompressed, slightly 
expanding at the hinder third, in the dorso-ventral direction, 
to lodge the shell. The margin of the anterior aperture of the 
mantle is thin and free, with three emarginations :—one ven¬ 
tral, deep and short, above which the funnel (7, figs. 1 & 4; 
PI. III. fig. 1, i) projects; and two dorso-lateral, meeting at 
a point (PI. I. fig. 1, li) which projects forwards from the 
middle of the dorsal border. There are two similar but 
shorter ventral points at the sides of the funnel. Beyond this 
margin the mantle gains in thickness, and again thins off to 
its posterior border. 
The mantle terminates behind in two broad lateral lobes 
(ib. figs. 1, 2, 3, c,c) rounded posteriorly and clasping, as it 
were, the sides of the shell, concealing the umbilical turns. 
A portion of the last whorl projects from both the ventral ( e) 
and dorsal (f) interspaces of these lobes, but most so from 
the dorsal one (fig. 2), towards which the larger end of the 
whorl is bent, before inclining ventrad to its termination 
within the body. 
The dorsal part of the mantle, continued from the anterior 
pointed lobe backward, thins off to the margin of the aperture 
(ib./'), through which appears the part of the outer whorl of 
the shell: from the margin of this aperture, which is entire, the 
* Lovell Reeve, ‘ Elements of Concliology,’ 8vo, 184G, p. 18, pi. A. 
figs. a-f. 
+ Ibid.: “Mr. Cuming is desirous of preserving the specimen under 
consideration entire” (p. 18). 
