366 
a. 
b. 
c. 
peculiar in being unsymmetrical, having at the anterior margin 
One simple and one double prominence; no median prominence. 
These differences, to which must furthermore be added the exi- 
stence in chilensis of those remarkable organs regarded by Joh. 
Muller as Cuvierian organs which are absent in the two other 
forms (so far as I have been able 
to see on the not very satisfactory 
material at my disposal), make it 
evident that it is perfectly unjusti- 
fiable to unite all these forms into 
one single species. Very probably 
also other differences will be found 
between the three species, when 
well preserved specimens are avail- 
able; but the facts pointed out here 
are already sufficient to show how 
illfounded it was to make coriacea 
and australis synonyms only of 
chilensis. The same most probably 
applies to the species caudata (Slui- 
ter) form the Java Sea and Ranson- 
nettii v. Marenzeller from the Chinese Sea, which Clark makes 
likewise synonyms of chilensis. I have had no opportunity of 
examining specimens of these two forms, but the figures of the 
calcareous ring and the calcareous bodies given in the original 
descriptions seem to me to leave no doubt but that they are per¬ 
fectly distinet species, as might also be expected from zoogeogra- 
phical reasons. Thus the zoogeographical paradox of the species 
Caudina chilensis oceurring at S. America, New Zealand, Australia, 
the Java Sea and China need not trouble us any more and wor- 
rying over the name chilensis as inappropriate for the New Zealand 
— Australian—Javanese—Chinese species is likewise quite super- 
fluous. But we may well worry over the harm that this mixing 
up of all these various forms has already done. 
I beg to express my sincere thanks to Dr. W. Arndt, Zoolo- 
gical Museum, Berlin, for lending the type specimens of Joh. 
Muller’s Molpadia chilensis, and to Dr. Edgar R. Waite, Di- 
Fig. 47. Radial and inlerradial of cal- 
cai-eous ring of Caudina australis (a), 
C. coriacea (b), and C. chilensis (c). ■*/!. 
