40 
AUSTRALASIAN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 
Photinula capillacea Philippi. 
var. minor Smith. 
Trochus capillaceus Philippi, Zeit fur Malak., iv., 1848, p. 102. 
Ccintharidus pruinus Gould var. minor Smith, Coll. “ Southern Cross,” 1902, p. 207. 
One specimen, June 28th, 1912, from 1 fathom, Carnley Harbour, Auckland Islands. 
Photinula coruscans sp. nov. 
(Plate V., figs,. 60, 61.) 
Cantharidus pruninus var. perobtusa Suter, Proc. Malac. Soc., ii., 1897, p. 269 ; Id., 
Man. N.Z. Mollusca, 1913, p. 125, pi. xxxix., fig. 6. 
Shell globose-conic, thin, light and imperforate. Colour a leaden purple which, 
on the apex, changes to bright rose, basal callus white with a narrow outer border of 
wine purple. Whorls six, rapidly increasing, wound obliquely, last descending a little 
and broadened behind the aperture. Sculpture : to the eye the surface is smooth 
and glossy, but under the lens appears densely and finely spirally scored by grooves 
which extend uniformly across the whorl. On the third whorl are five grooves which 
subsequently decrease in size but multiply greatly in number, and on the last whorl 
are crossed by delicate growth lines. The centre of the base is occupied by a thick 
callus overflowing from the columella margin. Aperture oblique, subcircular, outer 
lip simple thin. Between the insertions the previous whorl is first eroded and then 
smeared with a nacreous film. Within the outer lip is a narrow space coloured like the 
exterior and followed by a broader pale and dull zone. Further within the throat is 
brilliantly nacreous with opaline reflections of rose, mauve, and emerald. It is finely 
fluted by spirals independent of the external sculpture. Height, 21 ; maj. diam., 23; 
min. diam., 19mm. 
Ten specimens were obtained at the north end of Macquarie Island, but there is 
no note as to their precise situation. Their wide aperture and thin shell suggests that 
they may live clinging to the seaweed. 
As this shell seemed to me not to conform to the representation of Cantharidus 
pruinus var. perobtusus, with which Mr. Suter had identified it, I asked Dr. Pilsbry 
to compare a Macquarie Island shell with the type of his perobtusus. He replied, 
November 23rd, 1915, that perobtusus was founded on a single specimen, the locality of 
which is still unknown; it has an axial pad larger than coruscans, and the last whorl 
is noticeably concave above. He considers that, if the shell I sent was adult, the two 
are specifically distinct, although he would rank coruscans as closer to perobtusus than 
that is to pruinus. He agrees that Photinula may include these. 
