34 



NOTES ON SOME TASMANIAN CHITONS. 



By Mb. "W. E. Bednall (Corresponding Member of the 



Koyal Society of Tasmania). 



(Read April gtk, 1894.^ 



Some time ago I received from Captain Bcddome, of Hobart, 

 several specimens of three species of Chitons, labelled respec- 

 tively Chiton speciosus, Chiton australis, and Chiton liralus. 

 At the time they came to hand the South Australian forms 

 were engaging my attention, and I at once saw that there 

 must be some mistake in regard to those sent under the names 

 of speciosus and liratus, as they could not be made to answer 

 the original descriptions of those species, but the difficulty of 

 satisfactorily identifying them by reference to the literature 

 at my command compelled me to put them aside for the time 

 being. A few months since some Chitons collected by Dr. 

 Perks at Port Elliot, Encounter Bay, were submitted to me 

 for examination, when I recognised that they were identical 

 with the specimens sent to me by Captain Beddome as Chiton 

 australis, Sowerby, and I so labelled them ; further, I exhibited 

 an example before the Eoyal Society of South Australia as an 

 interesting addition to the molluscan fauna of this colony. 

 Having, however, since had the privilege of studying the 

 exhaustive work of Mr. H. A. Pilsbry on the Polyplacophont 

 (Chitons) as part of Tryon's Manual of Conchology, I found 

 I had been too hasty, and had fallen into the too common 

 snare of accepting a name under which a species is popularly 

 known, and that, instead, the shell was the closely allied 

 Chiton novmhollandice, of Gray. To satisfy myself more 

 thoroughly I procured typical Port Jackson specimens of 

 C. australis from Mr. C. Hedley, of the Australian Museum, 

 while almost at the same time I received two examples from 

 Mr. G. B. Sowerby, of London, labelled C. australis, one of 

 which, however, proved to be C. novaihollandim, Gray. The 

 means now being at my command, I resolved to deal with the 

 forms received from Captain Beddome, and to submit the 

 results to your Society. For the benefit of Tasmanian 

 conchologists I shall quote the descriptions of the species 

 from the Manual of Conchology very fully. 



Ischnochiton haddoni, Pilsbry, 1892. Tryon's Manual of 

 Conchology, Vol. XIV. (Polyplacophora) page 88, 

 pi. 22, figs. 67-73. 



Chiton longicymba. Sowb. Conch. Illust. f. 67. 



„ Reeve. Con. Icon, species 163. 



