14 TROCEEDINGS OF THE MALACOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



DESCEIPTION OF MULLERIA DALYI, n.sp., FROM INDIA. 



By Edgae a. Smith, F.Z.S., etc. 



Read \2th November, 1897. 



Hitherto this genus has been represented by a single species, 

 Mulleria lohata,'^ which occurs in some of the rivers of Colombia. 

 Its existence outside the South American continent, in a region so 

 remote as India, is most remarkable and worthy of record. 



The genus Mulleria, with Bartlettia and Al^theria, constitute the 

 family ^theriidae, the two first being South American forms and 

 the last Afi-ican. Considering, therefore, the geographical position, 

 one would have expected to have met with the African rather than 

 the South American type in India. 



Two of the specimens about to be described were collected in the 

 Mysore province of Southern India, probably near Mudgiri in the 

 Kadur District, by Mr. W, M. Daly, a resident in that country. 

 They have been placed in my hands for examination by Mr. H. 

 Fulton. 



Other examples, containing the animals, have also very kindly been 

 submitted to me by Mr. E. L. Layard. He obtained them from 

 a relative, Mr. Herbert Bonner, who found them in the river Budra, 

 in Mysore. Mr. Bonner writes: — "I find them on a rock in the 

 middle of a deep pool, and so far I have not found them on other 

 rocks, though no doubt they are to be found. They adhere very 

 firmly, and since the rock is smooth and well under water, they are 

 hard to detach. The water is quite fresh, being more than 400 miles 

 from the point where the river joins the sea, and only some thirty 

 miles from its source in the Western Ghauts." 



The shells exhibit the same irregularity of form which occurs in 

 the South American species, and probably no two examples are pre- 

 cisely alike. None of the specimens clearly exhibit the characteristic 

 embryonic shell, but the anterior end of the attached valves is more or 

 less produced as in Mulleria lobata. 



An examination of the animal shows that this genus is practically 

 identical with ^theria in respect to the soft parts, save in the absence 

 of the anterior adductor. The mantle -lobes are free all round except 

 just beneath the hinge-line, and posteriorly at the extremity of the 

 branchise, where, however, the edges are free ; above this connection 

 is the anal opening. The lower or branchial opening extends from 

 the hinder end of the gills as far as the hinge -line in front. The 



^ ^theria Kovogranatensis, Scliaufuss (Sitzimgs Ber. naturw. Gesell.Isis: Dresden, 

 1865, p. 10), is evidently the same species. The genus Mulleria, founded in 1823 

 and appearing in all textbooks since, seems to have been entirely overlooked by 

 this author. 



