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Show 1885.] ' LIGHTNING' AND 'PORCUPINE ' EXPEDITIONS. 51 Distribution. Finmark, Lofoden I., West Norway, between the Faroes and Hebrides, Shetland, Bay of Biscay, Mediterranean, and Adriatic; 40-913 fms. Fossil. Pliocene: Belgian Crag(Faw Beneden, as A. pes-carbonis), Calabria and Sicily (Philippi and others as Chenopus desciscens). I extract from my notes made in the ' Porcupine' Expedition of 1862, the following description of the animal of the variety macandrea :-BODY cream-colour : snout cylindrical and extensible, pinkish, with a yellow streak half way down the middle in front; the extremity is edged with a yellowish rim or border and is also of the same colour underneath : tentacles thread-like and very slender, marked with a narrow white line down the middle in front: eyes very small, sessile on the tentacles at their outer base: foot long and narrow, squarish in front and pointed behind. Having since the publication of m y work on British Conchology dredged on the western coast of Ireland, as well as in the northern part of our seas, specimens of much larger size than those which I had described as A. macandrea, even exceeding those of A. serresianus from the Mediterranean, I now feel myself obliged to give up my species and to consider it a variety. M y suspicion that Chenopus desciscens of Philippi was a fossil representative or form of the present species, or rather of the variety macandrea, has been verified by a comparison with recent specimens, which has been effected through the obliging transmission by Prof. Seguenza of fossil specimens of C. desciscens. I may here remark that Philippi, in his ' Handbuch der Conchyliologie und Malaco-zoologie' (published nine years after the last volume of his work on the Mollusca of the Two Sicilies), restored the far older generic name Aporrhais and substituted it for Chenopus. It is almost impossible to say whether Rostellaria pes-carbonis of Brongniart was intended for A. serresianus or for some other Pliocene species from the Vicentia district. His description and figure were necessarily incomplete, being avowedly founded on a fragmentary and very imperfect specimen. I have received from correspondents under the former name a very different species from A. serresianus. Family XXVIII. CERITHIID^E. This family has been lately placed by the Marquis di Monterosato between Muricida and Pleurotomida, although no reason is given for this apparently strange allocation. While giving m y old friend and correspondent full credit for his knowledge of Mediterranean shells, and for his industry which is evidenced by his last work, ' Nomenclatura generica e specifica di alcune Conchiglie Mediter-ranee,' I cannot help regretting that he has not described the numerous so-called species to which he has from time to time given names only. These names cannot be recognized under the present or perhaps any system of classification, but must be treated as manuscript. With respect to his proposed multiplication of new 4* |