Victorian Chitons. 155* 



Lepidopleurus. 



There are two species of this genus represented in the col- 

 lection. So many points of interest are involved in their identi- 

 fication, that they almost want a paper to themselves. • 



Messrs. Iredale and May, in their valuable paper (Proc. Mai.. 

 Soc, vol. xii., pts. II. and III.,' Nov., 1916, p. 99), discuss the- 

 question of the identification of Reeves' Lepidopleurus inquinatus,. 

 described as from " Van Dieman's Land ; Dr. Sinclair," and. 

 conclude their discussion with these words : " However, all those 

 we have yet examined seem to fall into Parachiton, since the 

 girdle appears to be covered with slender glassy spikes, while 

 inquinatus and the Neozelandic shore shells have the girdle- 

 covered with small scales," and add, "There may be a shore 

 shell in South Australia which may bear the name of liratus.^ 

 I show later on in this paper that, while all the species under 

 discussion have girdles furnished with scales, they also, all, in 

 a varying degree, have- some spicules present as well. It is not 

 at alt difficult to understand why Reeves and Adams and Angas 

 should have ignored this feature when one has seen how easily 

 these spicules disappear, or become a negligible quantity in shells 

 kept a long time in spirit, or that are carelessly preserved. 



I have gone carefully into this question, comparing the material' 

 I have available with Reeves' description and plates of L. in- 

 quinatus and Adam and Angas' description of L. liratus, and I 

 have come to the conclusion that we are amply justified in recog- 

 nising in the South Australian shore shell the Lepidopleurus 

 liratus of Ad. and Ang., and endorse the action of Sykes in re- 

 cognising in some of the specimens from Port Phillip Reeves'" 

 Chiton inquinatus, which shell coincides with one of the forms 

 dredged in Tasmania by Mr. W. L. May. I now separate the 

 Neozelandic shell describing it under the name o ircdalei, in ac- 

 knowledgment of the suggestive remarks quoted above. 



Lepidopleurus liratus. Ad. and Ang. (P.Z.S., London, 1864,.. 

 p. 192, Angas I.e. 1865, p. 187.) 



There are two small specimens which I consider correspond 

 with the shore shell found, although never numerous, in all 

 places in South Australia where I have collected. It is quite 

 evident that the shell collected by Angas, " Under stones at low 

 water, Yorke's Peninsula, South Australia," is the one that has 

 been known in collections from that State as L. inquinatus r . 

 Reeve, but was included in my Distribution List (Trans. R. Soc 



