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Show 566 DR. .1. cox O N N E W L A N D A N D M A R I N E SHELLS. [June 17, transversely rather coarsely striated throughout, and covered above and below with oblique rows of prominent rather coarse setae ; spire slightly raised, bluntly convex ; suture deeply impressed ; whorls 5, convex, gradually increasing in size, last somewhat inflated, rounded below, excavated round the umbilicus, and gradually depressed in front for half the circumference of the whorl; aperture transversely oval, lip broadly expanded and slightly thickened, triangularly dilated at the columella, the outer margin of which overhangs the umbilicus ; margins of aperture joined by a thin callus. Diam., greatest 121, least 0*95 ; height 0*76 of an inch. Hab. Louisiade Islands, on the north-east, coast of Australia. This species has the general aspect of a large specimen of H. erinaeeus, Pfr. HELIX (GEOTROCHUS) REDEMPTA, sp. nov. (Plate XLVIII. figs. 6, 6 a.) Shell orbicularly convex, imperforate, obliquely finely striated from above downwards and backwards with straight striae, and on the last two whorls from behind forwards with interrupted malleated striae, of a dull opaque white colour, apex pink, variously ornamented with irregular dark chestnut spots, or with two or more regular broad bands ; spire bluntly coniform; whorls 5, slightly convex, last sharply keeled and shortly deflected in front, base flattened ; aperture quadrilateral, beaked at the periphery of the last whorl, margins joined by a thin pink callus ; peristome pink, narrowly reflexed; columella broadly dilated, blending with the pink callus joining the margins, and occluding the umbilicus. Diam., greatest 1*09, least 0*84 ; height 0*72 of an inch. Hab. Solomon Islands. The present shell is one of three specimens of Helix submitted two or three years ago to Mr. G. F. Angas for identification, one of which was pronounced to be H. louisiadensis; a second was labelled as a dead, very much worn variety of H. fringilla; and the third, the one I am now describing, was sent back as a variety of //. eros. Examples of the first I circulated under the title of H. louisiadensis ; but Mr. Angas on further comparison of the specimens has recently determined that it is a new species, which he has named H. philomela. The figure, however, given by him is that of the rarest variety, and cannot be regarded as the ordinary representative of the species. It is found abundantly at the Louisiade and the Solomon Islands; and the prevailing colour is white with a dark black edge behind the reflexed lip, " a pigment-like deposit." The shell labelled as "a dead, very much worn variety of H. fringilla " I saw could not on any pretence be admitted to be such; and, trusting to Mr. Ar.gas's diagnosis of H. louisiadensis, I considered it new, and described it as H. millicentee in these ' Proceedings' for 1871. I now find that it proves only to be a very rare variety of //. louisiadensis with a white lip, as in this particular it differs from a number of specimens recently received by me of this hitherto rare species. |