75 



' NOTES ON THE GENUS COXIELLA. 



By Edgar A. Smith, F.Z.S., etc. 



Read Uth February, 1898. 



This genus was founded by the writer ^ for the reception of certain 

 iDrackish or salt-water moUusca occumng in the west and south of 

 Australia. At the time I was under the impression that the two 

 forms, hitherto usually known as JBlanfordia striatula, Menke, and 

 B. pyrrhostoma, Cox, constituted a single variable species. The 

 study of additional specimens, however, has induced me to alter that 

 opinion, and it now seems advisable to keep them separate. At 

 the same time I would point out that there appears to have been 

 a mistake in the identification of the shell described by Menke from 

 west Australia, the south Australian form having been supposed to 

 represent that species. Three species of Coxiella are now known. 



1. CoxiELLA STEiATiTLA (Menke). 



Truncatella striatula, Menke : Moll. Nov. Holland, p. 9 ; Kiister, 

 Conch. Cab., p. 14, pi. ii, figs. 32, 33 probably. 



Blanfordia pyrrhostoma, Cox : Mon. Austr. Land-Shells, p. 95, pi. xv, 

 figs. 14, 14fl!. 



Sah. — "Ad litus occidentale sabulosum" (Menke); Sharks Bay 

 (Cox) ; Cossacks, and from a dry salt-pan, twenty miles north-east 

 of Esperance Bay, "W. Australia (B. H. Woodward: coll. Brit. Mus.). 



This I believe to be the true Truncatella striatula, Menke, for the 

 following reasons. In the first place it occurs only in western 

 Australia, the locality assigned by Menke. Secondly, the colour 

 ("pallide carnea") is more applicable to the west coast than to the 

 southern shell. The latter is pale brownish or " dull olivaceous," as 

 described by Cox. On the contrary, specimens from the west coast, 

 of the size described by Menke, are often of a pretty reddish or fleshy 

 tint, others, generally the larger and more adult specimens, being dull 

 white. The latter may be referred to by Menke in his note : "In 

 emortuis tritisque speciminibus color et striae evanescunt et testa 

 decolor et glabra apparet." 



It might be urged that Menke would not have overlooked the 

 bright red aperture in his description. In his specimens which were 

 "pallide carnea," and possibly more or less faded, this characteristic 

 may not have been so striking as in fresh examples. However this 

 may be, it seems to me, that the identification must be determined by 

 the locality, since Menke's description applies fairly well to both forms. 



1 Proc. Make. Soc, vol. i, p. 



