220 



Note. — I have taken this rare Lepidopleurns at Marino and Cape Jervis, 

 and Dr. Torr has recently taken it at Kangaroo Island, all in this State. 



These differ from L. luattJiezvsianus, Bed., in being broader, slightly carin- 

 ated, granules coarser and further apart. Specimens taken in this State differ 

 considerably from one another in system and regularity of sculpture ; in some, 

 the granules are placed quite irregularly, in others in fairly definite rows. Thus 

 althovigh several of them show decided differences from the paratype that was 

 given to me by Mr. Tom Iredale, this element of variation prevents one from 

 considering them distinct. In none of the specimens collected by myself can the 

 animal be described as "deep-red" colour ; in every case it has been buff. 



Hedley and Hull record it from "Balmoral and Shark Island (Port Jack- 

 son) ; Long Reef, near Narrabeen, though a rare shell." 



Lepidopleurus NIGER, Torr, 1911. 

 PI. xvi., fig. 4. 

 (Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Austr., vol. xxxv., pp. 105, 106, pi. xxv., figs. 5 a-f, 1911.) 

 Dr. Torr has been good enough to allow me to examine the type of L. 

 nigcr, Torr (which for some years has been misplaced), and I find it undoubt- 

 edly conspecific with L. matthezvsiauus, Bednall. Torr records that only one 

 specimen was found "under stones, in shallow pool at Hopetoun, Western Aus- 

 tralia," and no other member of this genus is recorded as having been found 

 on the trip. On seeing the type specimen I noted at once that it had only 7 

 valves, and on turning up the figures accompanying the original description I 

 found that it had been figured with only 7 valves, and had evidently never been 

 disarticulated, as no sutural laminae are shown. It is one of the black-footed 

 varieties of Bednall's shell, which, owing to the absence of one valve and the 

 crowding of those that remain, gives the shell a very unusual appearance. 



Dr. Torr, on p. 106, I.e., remarks, "I had classified this as L. mattheivsianus, 

 Bednall. but on comparing them I found it much broader in proportion to its 

 length, and the body of the animal, which is uniformly red in L. mattheiusianus, 

 is almost black in L. niger." 



Although the foot is usually red, as before noted, I have found a good many 

 with a practically black foot. 



While the recognition of L. niger, Torr, as conspecific with Bednall's species, 

 removes L. niger as a species from the fauna of Western Australia; Torr's 

 find places L. mattheivsianus, Bed., for the first time on the Fauna List of that 

 State. And further, it is the first record of the occurrence of a member of that 

 genus in Western Australian waters, and Dr. Torr is to be congratulated thereon. 



Lepidopleurus pelagicus, Torr, 1912. 



PI. xvi., fig. 3b. 



(Torr, Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Austr., vol. xxxvi., pp. 165, 166, pi. v., figs. 2 a-f, 1912=r 

 L. columnarius, Hedley and Hull, I.e.) 



Mr. Tom Iredale, while we were together examining the types of Polyplaeo- 

 pJwra in the British Museum, in June last, called my attention to the differences 

 in the descriptions of the girdle characteristics of L. eolnmnarins, Hedley and 

 May, and L. pelagicus, Torr, suggesting the possibility' that the two species were 

 not conspecific, as had been determined by Gatliff" and Gabriel (I.e.). 



As before quoted, Hedley and May say of the first-named species, "Girdle 

 with minute, dense, imbricating scales" ; whereas Torr in his description of 

 L. pelagieus (I.e., p. 165) says, "Girdle leathery and spiny to the unaided eye; 

 under U-inch lens it is covered with minute spicules." 



