54 The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. [Feb. 
On Siphonalia dilatata of Silter’s Manual, by Charles Hedley, Australian 
Museum. 
As the guest of the Municipal Council of Auckland I had the pleasure of 
accompanying Mr. A. E. Brooks on a trawling trip of the s.s. “ Cowan ” 
off Tiritiri Island. On a previous excursion the trawl had brought up 
some whelks, which the steward served to us boiled, as a slight refection 
and a substitute for “ morning tea.” 
■ • The whelk to which we were thus introduced was pounced on by us as 
a species like, but distinct from, Siphonalia dilatata , and which neither of 
us had ever seen before. After reflection I suggested to my companion that 
the rarity was probably what Mr. Suter had discussed in the Manual as 
Megalatractus maximus. To this, after looking at the book, he agreed. 
Subsequently I continued the study of this species in the Australian 
Museum, and reached the conclusion that, though this is what Mr. Suter 
regarded as Megalatractus maximus , the identification was erroneous, and 
that this name should be omitted from the New Zealand fauna. I am in 
agreement with Mr. Iredale’s remarks {Trans. N.Z. Inst ., vol. 47, p. 463, 
1915) on the use of the genus name Megalatractus. Further, I suggest 
that this shell with the single peripheral row of compressed nodules is really 
a misunderstood and long-lost species of Quoy and Gaimard— Fusus dilatatus. 
Again, the New Zealand shell usually labelled as Siphonalia dilatata 
should, I suggest, take the name of Verconella adjusta Philippi (Abbild. 
Beschr., ii, 1845, p. 21, pi. ii, fig. 7). 
Siphonalia dilatata does not, in my opinion, extend to southern Australia. 
The shell to which this name has there been given is rightly Verconella 
oligostira Tate. 
A Revised Name for a New Zealand Trochoid, by Charles Hedley, 
Australian Museum. 
From the vague locality of “ Oceania ” Dr. Paul Fischer described 
Trochus scamnatus in 1878. Twenty years afterwards this was recognized 
by Mr. H. Suter as identical with a shell from the beach of New Brighton, 
New Zealand. 
Less than a year before the appearance of Dr. Fischer’s article a shell was 
described by the Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods as Gibbula dolorosa and as from 
Bass Straits. This Gibbula has never been retaken by any Tasmanian or 
Australian collector. Recently Mr. W. L. May sent me one of the few 
existing specimens of G. dolorosa, suggesting that, as the Tasmanian record 
was so doubtful, I might find a match for G. dolorosa among exotic species. 
Prompted by so shrewd a guess, I easily found that G. dolorosa was the 
same as a shell which Mr. Suter had sent me from New Brighton under the 
name of scamnata. This observation affects two faunas : it removes a 
fictitious record from the Tasmanian list, and, as Fischer’s name was 
younger, G. dolorosa must now replace it in New Zealand. 
The synonymy stands thus :— 
Cantharidella dolorosa Ten.-Woods. 
Gibbula dolorosa Ten.-Woods, Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasm ., 1876 (27 Feb., 1877), p. 142 ; 
id., op. cit., 1877, p. 41 ; 1879, p. 69; id., May, op. cit., 1902, p. 113; id., Hardy, 
op. cit., 1915, p. 65; id., Tate and May, P.L.S. N.S.W., xxvi, 1901, pp. 404, 446, 
pi. xxiv, fig. 31. Trochus ( Gibbula) scamnatus Fischer, Journ. de Conch., xviii (1 Jan., 
1878), p. 66; id., Coquilles vivantes, Troqne, 1880, p. 394, pi. 117, fig. 4. Gibbula 
scamnata Suter, Proc. Mabac. Soc., ii, 1897, p. 278 ; id., Suter, Man. N.Z. Moll., 1915, 
p. 138, pi. 38, fig. 23. 
