Page:Beautiful·Shells·of·New·Zealand-Moss-1908.pdf/49

 LIMA BULLATA (Plate IX.).—Fig. 20 is a white shell, about one and a-half inches long, and found in the North Island. Both it and the Lima zelandica are rare shells.

LIMA ZELANDICA (Plate IX.).—Fig. 21 (lately known as Lima squamosa and recently renamed Lima lima) is a beautiful white shell, with eighteen ribs. The spikes on the ribs are sometimes tinted with brown. It is found at Whangaroa North, and has also been dredged up at Stewart’s Island. It attains a breadth of 2½ inches. Although Lima lima is the latest name given this shell, I trust the name of Lima zelandica given it by Sowerby will be adhered to. It is quite as silly to duplicate the names of the family, to describe a species, as to have a kind of horse known as “horse horse.” Crepidula crepidula (Fig. 27) is a similar instance.

SUB-EMARGINULA INTERMEDIA (Plate IX.).—Fig. 22 (late Parmophorus intermedia) is a white limpet-like shell, covered with a thin brown epidermis. It is sometimes 1½ inches long, the animal being like a large yellow slug.

SCUTUM AMBIGUUM (Plate IX.).—Fig. 23 (late Parmophorus unguis) is a white shell, covered with a thin brown epidermis, and is sometimes over 2½ inches long. The animal is like a big black slug, and, in comparison with the size of the slug, the shell is very small. A slug the size of a man’s fist would have a shell about an inch long. Most shell-hunters would pass by a Scutum abiguum, not thinking it had a shell embedded in its folds. The shell is found amongst rocks in sheltered places on ocean beaches.

SIPHONARIA OBLIQUATA (Plate IX.).—Fig. 24 is like a brown limpet, about one and three-quarter inches long. On the right side is the siphonal groove, which is much more clearly defined in the Siphonaria australis (Fig. 25). The shell is found in Dunedin.

SIPHONARIA AUSTRALIS (Plate IX.).—Fig. 25 is a brown or chestnut-coloured limpet, up to one inch in length. The siphonal groove can be seen on the upper side of the figure. The best specimens I have found were on the piles of Tauranga Wharf.