
| maa i aaa a ie a em mame anim ne, 
| 328 
447 1G )3 A.D. 
courtesy of Mr. W. Howchin, the Curator of the Tate Museum 
nae in the University of Adelaide, I have examined the types of 
these and find they all belong to this section. 
Comparison of H. punctata with those most nearly allied 
to it establishes its claim as an independent species. H. tenuis, 
Tate, has 24 ribs instead of 12, and a more pronounced 
shoulder which is further from the suture. H. pulligera, 
Tate, is much larger, has 29 ribs, a more angulated shoulder, 
and a much more prominent pullus, the sutures of which are 
hidden by the first spire whorl. H. pachycheila, Tate, is 
more pyriform, has 15 ribs, which are much stouter, and more 
prominent, and has marginate sutures. H. abbreviata, Tate, 
has 24 ribs, a less prominent shoulder, with a sloping area 
between this and the suture, and is much more contracted 
anteriorly. ; 
/ Fischer, in his “Manuel de Conchyliologie,” 1887, p. 601, 
| gives the Hocene period as that of the Hocithara, as indicated, 
indeed, by its name. Cossmann’s localities are Eocene, two 
species from the Paris Basin, and several species in Australia 
(all these are Tate’s) ; Oligocene, one probable species. 
When I described my novelty I noted the interesting 
discovery of a new species of the genus Harpa, which Tryon 
referred to as “a completed genus, no new forms rewarding 
the industry of modern investigators and explorers.” But 
the interest is greatly augmented by the recognition that it 
does not belong to the same section of Harpa as any other 
known recent species, but without doubt to the section 
EFocithara, which flourished in the Eocene period, the earliest 
of Tertiary times. Further, that it is—as far as J can gather 
—the only known living represertative of this section. Two 
other points of interest are noteworthy. That here in Aus- 
tralia, where nine out of a possible dozen species of fossil 
Eocithara are found, the one known living species of this 
section should occur. And also that all the fossils which 
certainly pertain to this section are attributed to the Hocene 
period, the oldest of the Tertiaries; that in the Oligocene, the 
next oldest, there should be but one described species, and 
that only probable ; that none should have been yet taken from 
the Miocene, Pliocene, or Pleistocene, and yet an Hocithara, 
certainly congeneric and even closely allied specifically, should 
be living in our South Australian seas. 
—_— 

Jos. C. VERCo. 




