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Show 394 MR. E. A. SMITH ON SHELLS FROM ADEN. [June 16, to the British Museum by Mr. MacAndrew, certainly are like M. marmorata,but more profusely ornamented with colour-markings than the Mediterranean form. If we unite these two so-called species, we must also include M. cuneata, Gould, from the Cape of Good Hope ', and M. cumincj-iana, Dunker, from Australia and the Red Sea ; the former " differing chiefly [from marmorata~\ in being of a brownish or rosy colour instead of pale green" (Gould)2, and the latter being of larger dimensions and somewhat more coarsely sculptured than normal specimens of marmorata. However, I believe those forms, at all events three of them (M. cuneata I am doubtful about), are quite recognizable and may therefore be left separate. 12. ARCA LACTEA, Linn. This species ranges as far north as Great Britain; it occurs in the Mediterranean and along the West Coast of Africa ; it is recorded from Port Elizabeth by Sowerby, and from the Natal Coast by Krauss (specimens from the latter locality are in the British Museum) ; and, finally, Mr. Cooke remarks that it " occurs in the Philippines in a form precisely identical with that found at Suez." 13. VENERUPIS IRUS, Linn. ( = macrophylla, Desh. &c.) V. macrophylla and V. irus are certainly identical. The former was originally described from the Philippine Islands, and has since been quoted from the Persian Gulf (MacAndrew) and Aden (Jousseaume, and Yerbury Coll.). 14. PETRICOLA LITHOPHAGA, Retzius. (=hemprichii, Issel.) Doubtless Mr. Cooke is right in considering these two names as belonging to one and the same species, and I fully admit the correctness of his supposition that P. chinensis, Deshayes, and P. bipartita of the same author, respectively from the China Sea and the Philippine Islands, are merely slight variations also. They had previously been considered synonymous with P. lithophaga by Tryon (Amer. J. Conch, vii. p. 257), who also, rightly 1 think, includes P. typica, Jonas, which has been recorded from South Africa by Sowerby (Journ. of Conch, vol. vi. p. 157). The MacAndrew specimens are exactly like the form bipartita. Jousseaume quotes this species, as P. hemprichi, from Aden. 1 A specimen obtained by the ' Challenger' at Port Jackson more resembles M. marmorata than M. ccznobita. 2 Gould states that bis species, like P. marmorata and P. ccznobita, occurs " imbedded in the test of a large Ascidian," a fact of which Mr. Cooke seems to have been unaware. |