86 PROCEEDINGS OF THE MALACOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



This list of mollusca is shorter than those for the Staines and 

 Boveney sections, but it includes three species worth noting, viz. 

 Vivipara fasciata, Pseudan. elongata, and Pisid. torquatum. The 

 two last-named species live to-day in the river close by, and V. 

 fasciata is plentiful in ditches a few miles up-stream. 



Once again I have to thank Mr. B. B. Woodward for his kindly 

 help in naming the Pisidia. 



J. E. Cooper. 



NOTE ON THE GENERA NEPTUNE A AND SYNC ERA. 

 By Dr. W. H. Dall. 



Read 9th December, 1931. 



A PROPOS of a reference to the name Neptunea in the last number of 

 the Society's Proceedings (p. 206) by Mr. Iredale, I would say that 

 no one will deny the right of an author (given a heterogeneous 

 assembly with no type named) to select one of the species as the type 

 of a new genus. N. despecta, Bolten (not of Linnseus) is founded on 

 a figure of Chemnitz, representing the ancient Fusus antiquus of 

 British authors and the Murex antiquus of Linnseus. This same species 

 was selected by Swainson as the type of his new genus Chrysodomus 

 more than eighty years ago. It appears in his text as C. argyrostomus, 

 and is specified as typical on page 90 of his Manual. So whatever 

 species be nominated as type of Neptunea, Bolten, it cannot be the 

 type of Chrysodomus. Also Mr. Iredale is quite mistaken in supposing 

 that Ne2')tunea has been used for Chrysodomus " without question " 

 and commonly by British and American authors. From Carpenter 

 in 1863 down to the present time the group of species in question has 

 been in use as Chrysodomus in this country generally, except when the 

 old term Fusus was employed. 



I can leave Dr. Bartsch to deal with Mr. Iredale's assumption in 

 regard to Syncera, but can hardly regard a species with four or five 

 lines of diagnosis giving essential and (at that time) unique 

 anatomical characters as a nomen nudum. 



November ] 2, 1921. Wm. H. Dall. 



