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Show 600 MR. E. A. SMITH ON SHELLS [June 2, 36. MELAMPUS FASCIATUS, Deshayes. Hab. Rua Sura Island, off the north coast of Guadalcanar, found in crevices of a log on the shore (Guppy) ; Ysabel Island (Brenchley in Brit. Mus.). . This species apparently differs as much in size as colour, and is very widely distributed, there being in the British Museum specimens from the Keeling Islands, Louisiade Archipelago, New Hebrides, and Fiji. The largest specimens are generally whitish with transverse brownish bands, and the smallest are frequently of an almost uniform black-brown, or light olive-brown or dirty yellow, with only the faintest indications of transverse zones. 37- MELANIA AMARULA, Linne. Hab. From a stream in Ugi Island. The two specimens from this locality differ in form and the number of spines upon the angle of the whorls. One has a much longer body-whorl, and has seventeen spines, the other only eleven. The columella is orange, and the epidermis towards the lip villose, as in the variety called M. cybele, Gould. 38. MELANIA SCABRA, Miiller. Hab. Ugi Island. I see no sufficient reasons for separating the few specimens obtained by Mr. Guppy from this variable and widely distributed species, with which several forms held distinct by Brot in his Monograph should, I think, be united. I have compared them with Indian examples, with which they agree very closely. 39. MELANIA SALAMONIS, Brot. Hab. Ugi Island. The single specimen from this locality differs in colour from the type figured by Brot, being uniformly olive, except the upper spirally striated whorls, which, being more or less destitute of the epidermis, are paler, and exhibit a series of small red spots or short flames below the suture. 40. MELANIA FULGURANS, Hinds. Hab. Ugi Island. This species has not, I think, been recorded from the Solomon Islands, although it has probably been known for some time to inhabit that group, for Mr. Brazier of Sydney presented, in 1879, four specimens from that locality to the "British Museum. These and several obtained by Mr. Guppy show that the species is rather variable in painting. None have the zigzag lines of the typical form, but are chiefly ornamented with spiral series of reddish dots or short lines, sometimes falling into longitudinal rows, and the whorls below the suture are often blotched with a darker colour. Mr. Guppy's largest specimen (7 whorls remaining) is 40 millim. long. |