160 



OX ANEITEA GRAEFFEI AND ITS ALLIES. 



pending fuller inform >tion, it would not be easy to lay down their 

 exact limits. T he minute size of the mantle in the New Zealand 

 section offers a marked contrast to the larger mantle of the Austra- 

 lian form. Possibly tins mucous pore of Athoracophorus, pointed 

 out by Knight, may furnish a good generic character ; it is certainly 

 absent in the Brisbane slug. Whether Aneitea is to be distin- 

 guished from Triboniophorus, is a difficult question. To decide, we 1 

 must resolve — first, whether Dr. Macdonald's drawings of the 

 teeth and jaw are correct, which fresh specimens from the island 

 wouM show ; secondly, if being correct, they would constitute a 

 generic or only a specific difference. 



If the accuracy of Dr. Macdonald's figures be believed, the 

 second section of Janellidae might be split into two genera ; one 

 from the New Hebrides whose jaw — departing from the family type, 

 is in its cutting edge no wider than its tooth or fang ; and the 

 other from Australia and New Caledonia whose cutting edge extends 

 in crescentic horns beyond the fang. (Lest it should be considered 1 

 preposterous to doubt drawings made from nature by so careful an 1 

 observer, it may be remembered that such a reliable naturalist as 

 Dr. Knight lias actually figured for the teeth and radula of Athora- 

 covhorus ivhat must have been derived from Limax.*) 



Had these drawings never been published we should have had 

 every reason to consign our Australian slug to Aneitea. First Dr. 

 Macdonald himself identified it. Then Gray identified the New' 

 Caledonian slug as Aneitea. That it i> really A. macdonaldi may be- 

 held an open question until something better than alcoholic specimens 

 are examined. So that after the New Hebrides specimen, these 

 New Caledonian specimens in the British Museum would be the 

 best available types of the genus. 



Ft has bsen pointed out by Mr. Smith that these New Cale- 

 donian specimens possess the typical Janellidae jaw which he com- 

 pares to Refers tein's figure. | I also gather from Mr. Smith's 

 remarks that Professor Heyneman, than whom there is no better 

 authority, regards Triboniophorus as synonymous with Aneitea. 

 The excellent description evidently taken from life which Dr. 



* Trana. Lin. Soc. Vol. xxii pi. W, figs. 8, 11 IS, I*, 

 f Pro. Zool. Soc, 1881, p. '273. 



