164 



AN ENUMERATION OF THE 



ADDITIONS MADE TO THE GENUS LATIRUS Montfort, 



Since 1891, with Descriptions of Three Ne-w Species. 



By JAMES COSMO MELVILL, M.A., D.Sc. 



(Read before the Society, Dec. 14th, igto). 



Twenty years ago I attempted an " Historical Account " with 

 Catalogue^ of the Fasciolarioid group separated under the collective 

 name of Latiriis Montfort, this now being inclusive of Peristertiia 

 Morch, and Leucozo?iia Gray. Since that time, so far as I can ascer- 

 tain, twenty-one species have been added to the genus as new, 

 including the three being described at this opportunity, or else, as 

 in case of Latirofiisns iiigrofjiscus Tate, now referred to the genus, 

 after being at first located elsewhere. 



With regard to the iii species enumerated and catalogued in the 

 paper just alluded to, I see no reason why they should not all be 

 maintained. Accordingly the sum total is now augmented considerably, 

 not only by the twenty-one species commented on in this paper, but 

 also by the admission of Taro?i dubiiis Hutton,-an anomalous Novo- 

 Zealandic shell, with a latiroid radula, which has lately been incor- 

 porated in the genus by Mr. H. Suter, under the name of Latirus 

 hnttoni. I should, however, conjecture that as the name duhius has 

 only been once used, and that varietally" in the genus, Hutton's 

 appellation may be allowed to stand. Latirus {Peristeriiia) fischeriainis 

 Tap.-Can. likewise, considered in my first paper a Coralliophila or 

 perhaps JZngina, is now reinstated, and these swell the total of 

 recognised species to 134 altogether. 



It will be noticed, however, that Meizgeria alba (Jeffr.) is excluded. 

 This is the Latirus a /bus Jeffreys in Wyville Thomson, "The Depths 

 of the Sea," p. 64 (1S73), and the Rev. A. M. Norman, F.R.S., when 

 propounding the new generic name Meizgeria for it, remarks'* "The 

 shell is not properly referable to Latirus, and Dunker and Metzger 

 have established a genus i^Meyeria) to receive it, but Meyeria, as well 

 as Meyeriua and Meyerella have all been previously employed and, 

 therefore, the dedication of the genus to Metzger is suggested." It 

 is an Arctic species, occurring in Norway and the Faroe Channel, 

 and has been recorded as British. Although thus expunged from 

 the genus, some authors consider it still a very near ally, and group 

 it in the same family, considering that it bears the same relation to the 



1 Mem. and Proc. Maiich. Lit. & Phil. See, ser. iv., vol. 4 (i8gi). 



2 Trans N.Z. Instit., ,\I., pp. 360 sqq. 



3 L. t7-iserialis Lam. var. dubius Petit, /. de Conch., iv., p. 75, t. 2, f. 9, 10 (1853). 



4 Norman mjown. 0/ Conch., ii., pp. 56, 57 (1S79). 



