Whorls.-8, short, broad, of regular increase, the last rather large; they have a sloping, slightly concave shoulder; their profile below the keel is straight and scarcely contracted. At the top of each whorl there is a slight collar, which gives the effect of a very slight canaliculation to the suture. The base of the shell is somewhat swollen, and prolonged into the shortish broad, and very unequal-sided snout, which lies quite on one side of the base. Suture strong and slightly caniculated. Mouth large, almost rhomboidally pear-shaped, sharply angled above, and with a broad open canal below. Outer lip very regularly curved throughout; its edge, which is thin and sharp throughout, retreats at once on leaving the body, forming an open V-shaped sinus, which is rounded at the angle; below this it sweeps downwards and very little forwards, forming a very low-shouldered wing; towards the lower part of the mouth it curves very regularly backwards to the point of the pillar. Inner lip, which is polished and porcellaneous, is rather broadly excavated in the substance of the shell; it is scarcely convex on the body, very slightly concave at the junction with the pillar, which is narrow and short, being very obliquely truncate in front, with a fine, but strong, sharpish twisted edge. H. 1.26; B. 0.52. Penultimate whorl, height, 0.23. Mouth, height 0.6; breadth, 0.34.

I have marked the specimen from station 169 with a query. It is very much rubbed; but the sculpture of the shell, and even of the sinus-scars, is perfectly preserved. This and the proportion and form of the successive whorls are similar, though the line of keel lies a little higher. The shoulder is squarer and shorter, while the line from the keel to the suture is larger. Were the localities of the two less distinct and dissimilar, I would not hesitate. Still, the depth at which they live may secure similar conditions for the species even from 35° N. to 37° S.; and in any case I do not feel able to part the specimens.

In its expressed keel this very remarkable shell recalls the young of P. tornata, Dillw., or of P. circinata, Dall. In form it is slightly like P. spirata, Lam, or P. obesa, Reeve. The resemblance most striking of all, however, both in form and sculpture, is one to which my attention was kindly drawn by Dr. H. Woodward, —that, viz., to P. cataphracta, Brocchi, a fossil from the Upper Miocene of the Vienna basin and Northern Italy (Brocchi ii. 221, No. 52, viii. 16, Lam. ix. p. 367, and Philippi, Enum. Moll. Sicil. i. p. 199, ii. p. 171). Compared with that species, this New Zealand form is slimmer, the angulation of the whorls is less, but the keel on the angulation is more prominent though less nodulous and much lower placed, and the sinus is more remote from the suture and is sharper.

PLEUROTOMA (DRILLIA) GYPSATA, Watson, l.c. p. 413

St. 169. July 10, 1874. Lat. 37° 34′ S.; long. 179° 22′ E. N.E. from New Zealand. 700 fms., grey ooze. Bottom temperature 40°.

Shell.-Strong, fusiform, biconical, scalar; shortly, sharply, and obliquely ribbed, keeled, constricted at the suture, with a long and rather inflated body-whorl and a largish snout. Sculpture.-Longitudinals-on each whorl is a strongish angulation, forming a shoulder, crowned by a series of narrow elongated tubercles or short ribs; this coronated keel lies on the earlier whorls below, but on the later above the middle. The ribs do not reach the lower suture; in shape and breadth they are irregular, but are always somewhat swollen in the middle and pinched up into prominence; they are parted by flat open furrows of nearly double their width; on the body-whorl they extend very little below the shoulder, and still less above it. There are about twenty of these ribs on the last whorl, and fifteen on each of the earlier whorls. The surface is scored with hair-like lines of growth, of which every here and there, and especially on the base in the continuation of the riblets, one is stronger than the rest. Spirals.-The carination at the shoulder is made more prominent by the sharp line of tubercles. The whole surface is covered with flatly-rounded threads, which are roughened by the incremental lines: these threads are strongest on the snout, feeble on the body, and very faint in the sinus area. Colour, under a yellowish epidermis, which is a rough but thin and persistent membrane. Spire high, scalar, conical. Apex eroded, but evidently small. Whorls, 10 (?), of rather rapid increase, high, angulated, with a long, rather high, and scarcely concave shoulder, and with a straight slight contraction to the lower suture; the last is very large in proportion to the rest, being long and somewhat tumid, and ends in an elongated, broad, unequal-sided snout. Suture very slight indeed; for though it is defined by the contraction of the whorls above and below, yet the inferior whorl laps upon the one above it so as almost to efface the junction angle. Mouth, pale buff-coloured within, long and narrow, angulated above, also at the keel, and also, very slightly, at the junction of the pillar and the body. Outer lip. From the body to the keel it is slightly concave and contracted; from the keel it curves very regularly to the point. On leaving the body the line of the edge runs quite straight forward for a short distance, and then curves round to the right, running out on the line of the ribs into a high shouldered prominent wing, between whicn and the body-whorl the broad, deep and rounded sinus lies: towards the front of the mouth it retreats rapidly to the point of the snout. Inner lip spreads rather broadly on the body, is a little thickened, and has a very slightly raised edge. The pillar is long, straight, narrow, and has in front a slightly twisted edge, but is not truncated. H. 1.75; B. 0.75. Penultimate whorl, height 0.3. Mouth, height 0.96, breadth 0.47.

It is unfortunate that this very interesting species is represented by only two dead and somewhat broken shells.

Dr. H. Woodward, who kindly examined this species for me, says it is near P. rostrata, Solander. That species is figured by

Edwards in the "Eocene Mollusca," published by the Palæont. Soc., p. 218, xxvi. 8. Compared with that figure, this is much stumpier, more scalar, more sharply keeled, and the spiral sculpture is very much weaker; but there is a great deal of affinity in the general features of the shell.

PLEUROTOMA (DRILLIA) BULBACEA, Watson, l.c., p. 418.

St. 169, July 10, 1874. Lat. 37° 34′ S., long. 179° 22′ E. N.E. from New Zealand. 700 fms., grey ooze. Bottom temperature, 40°.

Shell.-Broadish, conical, sharply keeled, with a shortish contracted base and a short snout, short narrow ribs, and spiral threads, a bulbous apex, strong, porcellaneous. Sculpture.-Longitudinals-Below the sinus-area and about one-third down the whorls from the suture arise, not quite abruptly, ribs slightly tubercled at the top, straight, direct, narrow, and parted by shallow furrows about twice their breadth; they become feeble towards the lower suture; on the last whorl they do not continue to the base, and become broader and weaker towards the mouth. There are eleven on the last and penultimate whorls; on the first infra-embryonic whorl there are about seventeen crowded, sharp, scarcely curved, and oblique. The lines of growth are numerous and unequal; in the sinus-area they are sharp and delicate, on the rest of the shell coarse and puckered. Spirals -Marginating the suture at the top of each whorl is a narrow scarcely swollen band; below this the sinus-area is very finely, almost microscopically, scratched; and the scratch-sculpture is continued, though less distinctly, on the rest of the surface. The projection of the top of the ribs forms a sharp keel. The ribarea is crossed by five coarsish threads, which arise into small tubercles on the ribs; one or two smaller threads come in betwen the lines of these spirals. The same sort of threads, but less distinct, are found on the base; those on the pillar and snout are a little more distinct. Colour dull porcellaneous white. Epidermis quite gone. Spire rather short, conical, very slightly scalar; cylindrical towards the top. Apex two smooth embryonic whorls, swollen and roundedly pressed down, with a deepish suture, rather more prominent than the regular whorl which follows. Whorls 61⁄2, short. of rather rapid increase; the last large relatively to the rest; from the suture to the ribbing they are concavely shouldered. The projection of the tubercles at the top of the ribs forms a carination, which does not really exist in the form of the whorls themselves; there is a very slight contraction towards the lower suture. The last whorl contracts slightly from the keel to the edge of the base, and from that point rapidly to the small, narrow, straight, and direct snout. Suture coarse, slightly impressed, and well defined by the band below it, Mouth narrowly oval, pointed above, with an oblique, short, rather open, and gradually contracted canal in front. Outer lip a rather depressed convex curve, a little concave at the

top and flattened towards the point; on leaving the body it retreats at once, forming a shallow, blunt, V-shaped sinus, from the lower side of which, with little of angulation, it advances very straight to the edge of the canal, whence it slowly curves backward round the open point of the snout. Inner lip spreads as a very porcellaneous glaze; it runs very obliquely to the base of the shortish narrow pillar, below which point it is a very little hollowed. The point of the pillar is cut off with a very slight obliquity, and has a blunt and very slightly twisted edge. Operculum small, oval, smooth, with hair-like striæ, apex terminal, colour pale brownish-yellow, H. o'5., B. 0'23. Penultimate whorl, height, o'I. Mouth, height o1., breadth o12.

The blunt apex, the ribs, and coarse spirals of this species suggest some faint affinity with the P. nivalis, Lovén, group; but it is very remote.

PLEUROTOMA (DRILLIA) ULA, Watson, l.c., p. 420.

St. 169, July 10, 1874. N.E. from New Zealand. ature 40°.

Lat. 37° 34′ S., long. 179° 22′ E. 700 fms. grey ooze. Bottom temper

Shell.-Rather short, fusiform, biconical, scalar, angulated, obsoletely ribbed, with rather strong spiral threads. The snout is rather short, broadish, and lop-sided. Sculpture. Longitudinals-There are on the last whorl about 18, very oblique, curved, narrow, rather obsolete, irregularly arranged riblets, parted by wider shallow furrows; they originate faintly at the suture, are strongest and somewhat mucronate at the angulation, extend to the lower suture, and appear on the base but not on the snout; they are much stronger on the earlier whorls than on the last one. There are very many fine hair-like lines of growth. Spirals-There are a great many remote hair-like threads; on the shoulder below the suture these are fine and closer set than on the body and base; the carinal one at the angulation and that next below this, especially the first, are strong; they are ornamented with close-set, round, minute granules, which swell into small prominent tubercles in crossing the riblets; those on the carinal spiral in particular are high, sharp, and horizontally elongated. In the interstices of the ribs and spirals, the whole. surface is microscopically granulated. It is this granulated surface which gives the peculiar crisp aspect to the texture of the shell, from which its name is taken. Colour semitransparent flinty white, with a crisp or slightly frosted aspect. Spire scalar, rather stumpily conical, with its profile lines much interrupted by the constriction of the sutures. Apex-There are two globose embryonic whorls, of which the first is immersed, but scarcely flattened down on one side; they are rather remotely, microscopically, regularly striated. Whorls 5% in all; they are short, broad, of slow increase, with a rather long sloping shoulder and a sharp carinated angle, below which they are cylindrical, with a very slight contraction to the suture; the last is broadest at

the keel, and from this point convexly contracted to the rather short, broadish, conical snout. Suture linear, but well marked by the contraction of the whorls. Mouth rather large, rhomboidally pear-shaped, with three angles above, and prolonged into a wide open canal. Outer lip thin, angulated, rectilinear above to the keel, flatly curved below; on leaving the body it at once retreats to the left, forming in the shoulder a shallow, open, rounded sinus; below the angle it advances very little, and at the snout its retreat is small. Inner lip-There is a thin, narrow glaze on the body and pillar; at the base of the pillar is a slight rounded angle; the pillar is short, conical and straight; its point is very slightly truncate, with a narrow, rounded, but scarcely twisted edge. H. 024, B. O'117. Penultimate whorl, height 004. Mouth, height, o'12, breadth 0'06.

This shell may very likely be immature. The external lip in Pleurotoma is generally so thin that it is difficult to determine from it when the shell is full grown.

(To be continued).

NEW ZEALAND LARENTIIDE.

BY ALEXR. PURDIE, B.A.

The main inducement to compile this paper was the knowledge of the difficulty experienced by local entomologists in identifying their specimens of Lepidoptera. This difficulty arises from the fact that the descriptions are scattered through various publications not readily accessible by the ordinary student. What Captain Broun's work has done for our Coleoptera we yet want someone to do for our Lepidoptera. To help to supply the above want in some degree is the object of this paper, and I trust that through your pages these descriptions may be brought before many that would otherwise not have seen them. The Larentiidæ include many of our commonest moths, and such as are likely to form part of every collection, while they are large enough also to render observations on their structure and markings somewhat easy. They are grouped under Larentia, Coremia, and Cidaria; but no weight is to be laid on the arrangement, as the question of the genera is at present in a very unsettled condition, and can be decided only by those having access to more complete reference libraries, and to larger collections than those within our reach in New Zealand as yet. As these descriptions may be used by some that are new to this work it may be well to give shortly the general character of the markings of the family. The most distinct and constant mark is a broad transverse dark band across the middle of the forewing. This central band is referred to in the descriptions as the central or median belt. It is often edged with a lighter colour, and its central area is usually paler than its edges. The basal area of the forewing is often dark, containing several transverse lines. There is usually a dark