[XVIL] 



THE MOLLUSCA. 



Part I. Gasteropoda. 

 By CHARLES HEDLEY. 



Many of the introductory remarks which prefaced collections 

 previously dealt with, apply with equal force to the Mollusca. 

 Little was known of the Mollusca of the Ellice Group prior to our 

 Expedition. With one exception, none of the naturalists Dana, 

 Whitmee, Woodford, Finsch who have been to the archipelago, 

 gathered any shells. The exception being Dr. Ed. Graefte, who 

 visited most of the atolls in the interest of the Godeffroy Museum. 

 The land shells he procured are described by Mousson.* A few 

 other animals described by German authors from this group were 

 probably also collected by him. 



The poverty of the fauna of the atoll, compared with that of 

 any continental area lying under corresponding latitudes, such as 

 Queensland, New Guinea, or the Melanesian Plateau, again asserts 

 itself. Whole groups, the Brachiopoda and the Polyplacophora, 

 are missing, giving to the fauna an unsymmetrical aspect. 

 Especially significant is the absence of Mollusca with large eggs 

 such as Nautilus, Melo, or Valuta from this drifted fauna. In 

 many cases the Funafuti shells are smaller than the usual stature 

 of their respective species. Harper Pease has remarked that the 

 marine Gasteropoda of the Paumotus are in general dwarfed in 

 comparison with those of Tahiti. f Shipley mentions that speci- 

 mens of Gephyrean worms from Funafuti were considerably 

 smaller than representatives of the same species from Rotuma.J 



Poor though this fauna be, I have to apologise for the following 

 inadequate account of it. Thorough search would probably result 

 in multiplying the known total three or four times. My com- 

 mission embraced the study of the Atoll as a whole. Although 

 the Mollusca alone would have afforded occupation for the entire 

 time of an investigator, yet Ethnology, and Botany, and other 

 branches of Zoology equally claimed my attention. On my return 

 the mass of material, molluscan and otherwise, together with the 



* Mousson- -Journ. de Conch, xxi. 1873, pp. 102-109. 

 t Pease Am. Journ. Conch, iv. 1868, p. 109. 

 J Shipley Proc. Zool. Soc. 1898, p. 468. 



