14. 
South Australian Shells. 
s.a. Nat., Vol. xt. 
Nov. 30th, 1933. 
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN SHELLS. 
(Including descriptions of New Genera and Species). 
(By Bernard C. Cotton & F. K. Godfrey). 
PART IX. 
HALIOTIDAE. 
“Sea-ears/’ “Ear-shells,” “Mutton-fish.” Shell nacreous, 
ear-shaped, spiral, the spire small, body whorl very large and 
depressed, having a row of round or oval holes along the left 
side; aperture very large, occupying nearly all the lower face; 
columella (properly speaking) absent, the spire being open in the 
middle, seen from below; columellar margin produced into a 
flattened spiral plate; interior pearly, iridescent, with a large 
central muscular scar. No operculum. Distribution—Tropical 
and temperate; west coast of Europe, Mediterranean, east coast 
ol Africa, Cape of Good Hope, Indian and Pacific Oceans, China, 
japan, California, Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. Fossil 
—Cretaceous. Animal with a strong fleshy foot about as long as 
the shell or perhaps a little longer posteriorly, its upper surface 
granose; head with a short thick proboscis ending distally in a 
rounded disc, in its centre the mouth, longitudinally oval; a 
frontal veil, somewhat lobed but not fringed, connects the short 
eye stalks which lie just above and outside of the tapering ten¬ 
tacles; a fleshyand prominent epipodial ridge surrounds the foot, 
its border tuberculate and fringed with short cirri; in front this 
epipodial ridge terminates just under the tentacles; behind it is 
interrupted by an oval rugose tract of the integument (the oper- 
culigerous lobe) indicating the position of the absent operculum; 
mantle slit at the position of the row of holes, the slit extending 
as far back as the last open hole, which is occupied by the pro¬ 
longed free anus; gills long, one on each side of the slit, each 
composed of two scries of lamellae united bv a central rachis. 
The Sea-ear was called “Venus’s ear” by the Eolians; it is 
the Mother of Pearl” or “Norman Shell” of old English writers; 
in the Channel Islands it is “Ormer” (contracted from oreille- 
de-mer); French names are “Ormier” and “Silieux” (six yeux, 
six eyes); in California they are known as “Abalones,” a local 
name of uncertain etymology; “Awabi” is the Japanese name. 
Sea-ears are found under stones or in secluded places among rocks 
when the tide is low, attached like limpets; H. cyclobates is usu¬ 
ally found on Pinnae (razor-fish). They are chiefly plant feed¬ 
ers, but diatoms in considerable quantities have been detected 
in their stomachs together with the spicula of sponges. Sexes 
distinct. It is interesting to watch the mode of locomotion of a 
