THREE CEPHALOPODS NEW TO DORSET. 



By T. EDWARD BELCHER. 



(Read before the Society, April 8th, 1922). 



The under-mentioned are not recorded in Mansel Pleydell's 

 " Mollusca of Dorset," and unless they have been found since the 

 pubHcation of that work, in 1898, are new records for the county : — 



Spirula peroni (Lamarck). — An imperfect shell, picked up at 

 base of sand dunes, on a shell bed, Studland Bay, 26th July, 1921. 

 The shell bed is thrown up by rough seas, usually during the winter 

 months, and later covered with blown sand. In turn this is removed 

 by a strong N. or S. wind, leaving, for awhile, the bed exposed. 



Sepia elegans (Orbigny). — Up to the present, I have found only 

 the sepiostaires of this species, unfortunately all more or less damaged, 

 owing to their extreme brittleness. 



According to my notes for the past six years they are washed ashore 

 only during the first two months of the year. On February 4th, 192 1, 

 there were many all along h.w.m. in Studland Bay. The animal, no 

 doubt, is also thrown up, but there is very little likelihood of speci- 

 mens being found on the shore, owing to the number of gulls, w^hich 

 frequent this coast at all seasons of the year. 



Polypus vulgaris (Lamarck). — On September i6th, 1919, I came 

 across a dead, but perfectly fresh specimen, lying on the south shore 

 of Poole Harbour, about one mile from the mouth. The animal 

 measured between six and seven inches in length. 



Crepidula fornicata (Linne) in Dorset. — This gasteropod is not given in 

 Mansel-Pleydell's "Mollusca of Dorset," a work published in 1898. If this 

 species has not been recorded since that date, it may be of interest to know that I 

 found a small live specimen, measuring ^ x § inch, attached to a piece of coal, 

 thrown up on the beach, in Studland Bay, Nov. 5th, 1920. There is a bed of 

 Ostrea ednlis (L.) outside Poole Harbour, about two miles N. of the spot where I 

 found my specimen. Here perhaps a colony may exist. During May and June 

 1917, I received seven old shells from my late brother, who picked them up near 

 Cumberland Fort, or on the S.W. corner of Hayling Island. To my knowledge, 

 this is the nearest locality where shells have been found. — T. Edward Bei.cher 

 {Read before the Society, April 8th, 1922). 



On Sunetta hians (Reeve). — This shell is described in the monograph of 

 Meroe in the Conch. Icon., vol. xiv, pi. 3, f. 12 a,b,c, March, 1864, from 

 Bombay, and the type specimens are in the Cuming collection. The name, 

 however, cannot stand as it is anticipated by the Venus hians of Wood's Index 

 Test. Suppl., pi. 2, f. II, 1828, which is also a Simetta. I suggest, therefore, that 

 Reeve's species should be renamed S. tumidissiina. S. hians Wood is a synonym 

 of S. solanderii Gray in Thomson's Ann. Phil., n.s., vol. xi, p. 136, 1S25. Gray 

 misquotes Wood's name as Ventis hynansm the Analyst, viii, 303. — ^J. R. i.E B. 

 ToMLiN {Read before the Society. 2nd September, 1922), 



