OCR Text |
Show 390 MR. E. A. SMITH ON SHELLS FROM ADEN. [June 16, 3. Ou a Collection of Marine Shells from Aden, with some Remarks upon the Relationship of the Molluscan Fauna of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. By EDGAR A. SMITH, F.Z.S. [Received June 10, 1891.] (Plate XXXIII.) The specimens hereafter catalogued were collected at Aden between tide-marks or at low water by Major J. W . Yerbury, R.A., and the Rev. A. W . Baynham. To the former the British Museum is indebted for a very valuable series of 555 specimens, and from the latter it received 160 specimens. Nearly all are in excellent condition, and much praise is due to these gentlemen for devoting so much time and trouble to their cleaning and preservation. No complete list of the Mollusca of this particular spot has yet appeared, and it is as a contribution to such a Catalogue that I venture to publish the following. Many species have already been quoted from Aden, but to have searched through the vast mass of Conchological literature which exists, in order to get together a complete list of the fauna, would have occupied more time than could at present be spared. Dr. F. Jousseaume, in the ' Memoires de la Societe Zoologique de France' for 1888, has enumerated the species collected in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden by Dr. Faurot in 1885, and among the species quoted are a number (about 26) from Aden itself. Another list of 106 species from this locality was given by G. Caramagna in the ' Bollettino della Societa Malacologica Italiana,' vol. xiii. 1888. Some of the species mentioned in these Catalogues were not met with by Major Yerbury or Mr. Bayuham, and these I have given in a supplemental list at the end of this paper. The species quoted from the present collection which also appear in the works of Jousseaume and Caramagna are indicated by the locality Aden being inserted in the distribution, with the names of one or both of these writers appended. The fauna of the Red Sea is essentially tropical, and forms the north-west limit of the Indo-Pacific fauna. The great mass of the species found at Aden have been met with at various places further up the Red Sea, and many of them occur even at the northern end, in the Gulfs of Suez and Akaba ; the majority also have a wide distribution over the Indian and Pacific Region. I have not thought it necessary to give references to all the species, most of which are well known; but it is to be understood that they are recognized as determined in the Monographic works of Reeve, Sowerby, and Kiister, viz. the ' Conchologia Iconica,' the ' Thesaurus Conchyliorum,' and the ' Couchylien-Cabinet,' ed. 2. Notes respecting the identification of certain species have been inserted when any doubt has existed, and it is trusted some of these observations may be useful, as, in many cases, they are based upon comparison of the types. The present paper may also be of some |