ANATOMY AND LIFE HISTORY OF MOLLUSCA. Ill 



present existing. We cannot enumerate in the Australian fauna 

 a living Pleurotomaria as in the West Indies ; but it survived in 

 this region until recent times, as we have a line tertiary fossil 

 belonging to the genus. 



Cephalopoda are well represented in the Australian region. 

 The only peculiar genus is Pinnoctopus, a very rare form which 

 was discovered by Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard on the coast of 

 New Zealand, and which is described by them in the second 

 volume of the "Voyage of the Astrolabe "* (p. 27, pi. 6, fig. 2). 

 I am not aware that any specimen was ever found except that 

 which was captured on the voyage of the " Astrolabe " off New 

 Zealand, which was three feet long. The genus is characterized 

 by the broad wing-like expansions along the sides, which extend 

 in front and envelope all the body. Spirula is another genus 

 not confined to the Australian region, but more plentiful on the 

 coasts of Australia and New Zealand than elsewhere, where 

 thousands may be gathered on the beach. The animal is also not 

 uncommon, though perfect specimens are rare. It was a scarcity 

 amongsc naturalists, the published descriptions having been 

 derived from one specimen brought home from New Zealand by 

 Mr. Earl, and figured by Mrs. Gray in the "Annals of Natural 

 History/' and another described by M. de Blainville. " Mr. 

 Crouch procured a fragment, and an injured specimen was obtained 

 during the voyage of H.M.S. 'Samarang,' and served Prof. Owen 

 for an elaborate memoir on its anatomy." (Adams, op. cit., 

 Vol. i., p. 44.) There are on the Australian coast many other 

 species of Cephalopoda, such as the Paper Nautilus or Argonauta, 

 Sepia, several species of Octopus, Sepiola, Onychoteuthis and 

 Ommastrephes sloanii, the gigantic cuttle-fish, whose arms are 

 long and powerful enough to drag down large fishing boats at sea. 



Some of the genera of the Australian province are not only 

 exceptional types; but while they are found in Australia they are 

 not confined to it, and are only met with elsewhere at a considerable 

 distance, such as Solenella of the family of Arcadie, which occurs 

 in Australia and again at Valparaiso, Panopcea of the family 

 Myacid?e, which is found in Australia, and similar species in 

 Japan, Norway, the Mediterranean, and the Cape of Good Hope. 

 I have obtained a living species in Tasmania, and Mr. Brazier 

 records one from Port Jackson. Bankivia, a singular genus 

 combining the characters of several genera, nacreous and non- 

 nacreous, which is one of the commonest littoral shells in Bass' 

 Straits, and which is found also at the Cape of Good Hope. 

 Solemya, another of the Arcaclae, which is said to occur in 

 Australia and in the Mediterranean ; Trophon, which is common 



* See also Adams' " Genera of Recent Mollusca/' Vol. i., p. 20, pi. i„. 

 fig. 3 ; D'Aubigny " Mollusques vivantes et fossiles/' pi. ii. 



