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Show 298 MR. A. GARRETT ON THE TERRESTRIAL [Mar. 1, Ellobium oparicum, H. & A. Adams, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854, p. 9 ; Gen. Moll. ii. p. 237. Auricula oparica, Pfeiffer, Syn. Auric, no. 46 ; Novit. Conch, i. p. 28, pl. 7. figs. 14-16 ; Mon. Auric, i. p. 139. Auriculus subula, Pfeiffer, Mon. Pneum. (Auric.) iv. p. 360. Auriculus elongatus, Pfeiffer, I. c. Auriculus oparicus, Pfeiffer, /. c. A very abundant species, inhabiting the margins of mangrove-swamps, and widely diffused throughout the group. Likewise common to the Tonga and Samoa Islands, and generally distributed over Melanesia. It has also been found at different points in the East Indies; and Morelet records it from Mauritius. A small species, 9 to 16 millim. long, of a slender fusiform shape ; smooth, shining, longitudinally striated, acute, with a convexly-conical spire, very frequently truncated by erosion, and more or less lacerated at the suture. Body-whorl narrow, usually longer than the spire, attenuated or rounded at the base, rarely rimate. Aperture elongate, white, or light fulvous, sometimes livid, with a compressed subtransverse plait on the lower part of the parietal wall, and two small, oblique, approximating folds on the columella, the upper one sometimes evanescent. Peristome obtuse, in old specimens slightly sinuous above, and adnate next the suture. Colour white, beneath an epidermis which varies from pale olivaceous horn-colour to chestnut-black. A careful comparison of the descriptions of A. elongata and A. oparica has convinced me that they do not differ from A. subula, which Quoy obtained at the New Hebrides. Pfeiffer, in his description of A. elongata, mentions only a single columellar fold, and quotes the Sandwich Islands, "Feejee," and one of the Philippines as habitat. It certainly does not live on the former group. Schmeltz cites one of the Caroline Islands and "Tahiti," the latter erroneous. A. oparica, which was described from specimens in Cuming's Museum, is assigned to " insula Opara (ins. Societatis)." There is no island of that name in the Society group ; but there is a very small island, about 600 miles south of Tahiti, called Rapa-Oparee, which from its small size and rugged surface is not likely to be the home of the marsh-loving Auricula. 2. AURICULA SEMISCULPTA, II. & A. Adams. Ellobium semisculptum, II. & A. Adams, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854, p. 9 ; Gen. Moll. ii. p. 237. Auricula semisculpta, Pfeiffer, Syn. Auric, no. 139 ; Mon. Auric. i. p. 136 ; Novit. Conch, i. p. 39, pl. 10. figs. 7-9; Gassies, Faune Nouv. Caled. p. 70, pl. 3. fig. 11; Schmeltz, Cat. Mus. Godeff. v. p. 88. Auriculus semisculptus, Pfeiffer, Mon. Pneum. (Auric.) iv. p. 359. I found several hundred examples of this species in different parts of the group. They were all found buried in rotten bogs on |
