287 



Triphora pfeifferi, Crosse and Fischer. 



Triphuiis pfeifferi, Crosse and Fischer, Jour, de Conch., 1865, 

 p. 47, pi. i.. figs. 14 and lo. Type locality — Gulf St. Vincent. 



Triforis pfeifferi, Crosse and Fischer, Trvon, Man. of Conch., 

 vol. ix., 1887, p. 182, pi. xxxviii., fig. 9; Tate and May. Proc. 

 Linn. Soc, New South Wales. 1901, vol. xxvi., p. 388. Tasmania; 

 Pritchard and Gatliff. Proc. Rov. Soc. Victoria, vol. xiv. (N.S.), 

 1902, p. 86, Victoria. 



Taken on tlie beach as far west as Venus and Scales 

 Bays, and on St. Francis Island. Dredged at 6, 15, 20, 22 

 fathoms, alive, in Gulf St. Vincent, etc.: in 40 fathoms off 

 Beachport, very many good : in 55 and 62 fathoms off Cape 

 Borda, 2 perfect, 2 fresh, 5 good : in 90 fathoms off Cape 

 Jaffa, 1 perfect, 3 poor: in 110 fathoms off Beachport, 8, all 

 Ijroken ; in 130 fathoms off Cape Jaffa, 2 good : in 150 fathoms 

 off Beachport, 4 poor. It is verj'' abundant on the beach and 

 is manifestly a littoral shell, and certainlj' lives up to 22 

 fathoms, and may live up to 90 or 100. 



The authors say "the first three whorls are smooth." The 

 protoconch is of four convex whorls, with a central carina 

 and crowded axial Urge, and a well-marked suture. The 

 length of an adult shell with ascending suture and completely 

 formed mouth may be 9"5 mm. or 3"7 mm. 



It varies very greatly. When the supra-sutural ledge is 

 wide, but not projecting, the middle row of pearls is larger 

 than usual, and the upper row smaller than usual, an im- 

 iDricating or pagoda-like shape is assumed. When the supra- 

 sutural ledge is well marked and nodidated, so as to look 

 like a pearl row, and the highest pearl row is small, and the 

 middle row is scarcely seen, and the lowest is very large, 

 this may appear to be a large central row between two smaller 

 rows, and may, as Hedlev suggests (Proc. Linn. Soc, New 

 South Wales, 1903 (1902)," p. 6T6), be T. scitvh/s, A. Adams, 

 which we have not been able to identify among South Aus- 

 tralian shells. Sometimes the shell is typically nacreous- 

 white, with the violet-brown base, and the supra-sutiiral 

 ledge articulated brown and white ; but it may be almost 

 throirghout of a dark-violet-brown or any intermediate tint. 



The mouth in Crosse's type appears not to have been 

 complete. The outer lip ascends beyond the supra-sutural 

 ledge so as to touch the lowest pearl row. Here it is jjinched 

 so as to form a gutter, and retires to form a notch. It is 

 antecurrent towards the base and somewhat effuse, and crosses 

 the base of the canal as a spur, so as to meet an erect rather 

 thick inner lip. 



