PAPER NAUTILUS 
A photograph of the biggest Paper Nautilus 
Argonauta nodosa recorded is reproduced here 
by kind permission of “The News,” Ade- 
laide, where it appeared in the issue of 
Oct. 15, 1947. The shell is held by Miss B. 1. 
Newman, the Museum Conchologisfs Assis- 
tant. The specimen is a perfect one. measur- 
ing ten and a half inches in maximum 
diameter, and it was taken at Henley Beach, 
in Gulf of St. Vincent. These shells were once 
very rare on the local Adelaide beaches, but 
during the last five years some specimens 
have been taken. On August 21, 1943. 
six were reported washed ashore on different 
local beaches. Another, with eggs, was 
taken on August 8 by Dr. Angas Johnson 
at Port Noarlunga. The next in size to 
that already mentioned is a specimen in the 
S.A. Museum from Tasmania, collected by 
the late W. L. May and measuring ten inches 
in maximum diameter. No South Australian 
collector lias brought to my notice larger 
specimens than these. Mr. George Patiison, 
a well known and experienced collector took 
in three years more than 500 Paper Nautilus 
shells on Troubridge Shoal, but none ex- 
ceeded the size of the two specimens men- 
tioned here. Mrs. W. Klein reports that 
thirty Paper Nautilus Shells were taken on the 
beach at Corny Point during the first two 
weeks in June of this year. The Animal 
from one of them was forwarded to the S.A. 
Museum by Mrs. Williams. 
B. C. COTTON. 
