Proceedings of the United States National Museum

REDISCOVERY OF POURTALES' HALIOTIS.

By John

B.

Henderson,

OftheSmithsonianInstitution.

During

1869 a seriesof dredgings

were made under

the direction of

Count

Pourtales

by

the

U.

S.Fish

Commission steamer

Bihhinthe Straits ofFlorida.

The moUusks

obtained

by

theBihh

were

sentto

Washington, and

thence, in

due

courseoftime, to

Wilham Stimpson

in Chicago, to

whose

care

they were

intrustedfor report

and

publi- cation. Before

Stimpson had

entered

upon

thistask theentu-ecol- lection

was

destroyed inthe great

Chicago

fire.

While

these shells

were

in

Washington

prior to their

shipment

to

Chicago

they

were

inspected

by

Dr.

W ^H.

^Dall,

who was

greatlyinterested

and

astonished tofind

among

the lot a

specimen

of a Haliotis.

No

representative of this

genus had

ever before

been

reported

from

western Atlantic waters.

The

discovery, therefore, ofaHaliotis

from

Florida

was an

event

important enough

to inspire a

more than

casualscrutinyofthe specimen,

and

its

main

characters

became

impressed

upon

his

mind.

Some

20 yearslater,

when pubhshing

apreliminary report

upon

the

moUusks

collected

by

the Blake,

Doctor

Dall described

from

his

memory

^{this lost Haliotis,}

naming

it in

honor

of

Count

Pourtales.

The

locahtygivenclearlyindicatesthat the

specimen was

aresident ofthe

rocky

strip of

bottom

lyingjustoffthe Florida

Reef and

since referred to

by Alexander

Agassizasthe"Pourtales Plateau."

In

1889

Doctor

Dall

pubhshed

a report

upon

themollusca

taken by

theAlbatross in a

voyage made from

Norfolk, Virginia, to Cali- fornia.

In

thisreport

he

refers

with some

hesitancy aHaliotiscol- lected inthe

Galapagos

to

H.

pourtalesii

and adds

a

new

description of thespecies

based upon

the

new examples taken by

theAlbatross.

These

specimensare inthe

United

States National

Museum

collection (Cat.

No.

96392).

Two

yearsago,whiledredging

from

theEolisalong the inneredge ofthePourtales Plateau off

Key West

in90 fathoms, I

had

the ex-

ProceedingsU.S. NationalMuseum,Vol.

48—

No.2091.

660 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM.

vol.48.

treme good

fortune tosecurea Haliotis, althougha small

and some- what immature

specimen.

Upon showing

thisto

Doctor

Dall,

he

at once

pronounced

ittobe thetrue Haliotis pourtalesii, asthesight of the

specimen

itself refreshed his

memory

of the

example taken

so

many

years ago

by

Pourtales at

about

the

same

locality.

A com-

parison

with

the

Galapagos

specimens

above

referred to

immediately demonstrated

thefactthat the Atlantic

and

thePacific"pourtalesii"

were

not the same,but,

upon

the contrary,

very

distinct species.

The importance

of

an

east

American

representative of thisessen- tiallyPacific

genus

warrantsa

new

description

made from

this

unique

specimen,

now

^inthe

Museum

collection (Cat.

No.

271601). I give the following description

and

figure.

The Galapagos

Island species

must

receive a

new

designation. I take

much

pleasure in

naming

itin

honor

of

Doctor

Dall.

HALIOTIS (PADOLLUS)POURTALESnDall.

Plates 45and46,upperfigures.

1881. HaliotispourtalesiiDall,Bull.Mus.Comp.Zool.Cambridge,vol.9,No.2, p. 79.

1889. HaliotispourtalesiiDall,Bull.Mus.Comp.Zool.Cambridge,vol. 28,pp.

33and395.

1889. HaliotispourtalesiiDall,Bull.U.S.Nat.Mus.,No.37,p.168.

1903. HaliotispourtalesiiDall,Bull.U.S.Nat.Mus.,No.37, p. 168. (Reprint.) 1911. HaliotispourtalesiiHenderson,Nautilus,vol. 25,No.7,p. 81.

1914. HaliotispourtalesiiCooke,Proc. Mai. Soc.London,vol. 11, pt.2,p. 103.

Shell

somewhat

longer

than

wide.

Holes

17, thelast5

open with prominent

margins, theclosedones

prominent and

bulbous.

Nucleus

consisting of one full whorl,

smooth. The

characteristic sculpture begins

with

the postnuclear

whorl

in

very

fine spu'al lines

which

de- velop graduallyintosharplyraised,irregularlywaving,spiralthreads with finer intercalated threads appearing

and

continuing to the edge ofthe aperture.

At

the

end

of thesecond

whorl

there are 10 of these threads

between

the suture

and

the line of holes; at the

margin

oftheaperture,23to 27.

Below

thelineofholesthe threads are

more

widely spaced, thethirdone

forming

a decidedly angulated periphery.

Base marked by

fourequal,equally spaced,spiralthreads

on

the posteriorhalf. Anterior half ofthe base

smooth,

excepting a slender ^spiralsulcus a ^littlewithin the edgeofthe

wide expanded

aperture.

The

axial sculpture consists of rather regularly spaced lines of growth. Color

wax

yellow with deeper patches of orange;

nacreous shiningwithin.

Length,

11

mm.

;width,8

mm.

Dredged about

3 miles off

Sand Key,

Florida, in 90 fathoms,

on

sand

patches

among

rocks,

on

theedgeof the "Pourtales Plateau."

NO. 2091.

REDISCOVERY OF

POTJRTALES'

HALTOTTS—HENDERSON. 661

HALIOTIS (PADOLLUS)DALU,newname.

Plates 45and46,lowerfigures.

1889. Ealiotispourtalesii?Dall, Proc.U. S.Nat. Mus.,vol. 12,p.355,pi. 12, figs.1,3.

1890. EaliotispourtalesiiPilsbry,Man. Conch., ser.1, vol. 12,p. 121,pi.22, figs.27, 28.

1893. Ealiotis pourtalesii?Stearns, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 942, vol. 16, pp.418, 448.

The

following is

Doctor

Dall's descriptionin full:

Shell small,ofa pale brick-redcolor,with whitedotsonsomeofthespirals,rather elevated,with about_{2J whorls;}apexsmall,prominent;holesabout25,ofwhich5 remain open, the marginsofthese ratherprominent;outsidetherowofholesthe usual sulcusisstronglymarked; aboutmidwayfrom thesuture tothelines ofholes isa raisedrib,ratherobscurebutdifferingin differentindividualsandcorresponding toaninternal sulcus;between thecentralridgeandthesuture there arenoundulations ortransverse ridgesofconsequence;sculptureofwellmarked,ratherflattLsh,spiral, close-setthreads,sometimes witha singlefinerintercalary thread, overlaidbysmaller rathercompressedtransverseridges,inharmonywith theincrementallines;ontop ofthespiralstheridgesbulgelikethethreadsofworstedon canvas embroidery;spire situated wellforwardandwithsub-verticalsides;interiorpearly,thecoilofthespire rathercloseandthe marginofthepillarflattened. Longitudeof shell, 23; latitude, 18;altitude,11.5;nucleusbehind theanteriorend, 17

mm.

Eab.

—

Station 2815,in 33fathoms,sand; near Charles Island, oftheGalapagos group, inthePacific.

Thenearest relativeofthisshellisE.parva,from theCapeofGoodHope,which differsfrom ourspecimenschieflyinthegreaterprominenceofthecentralrib,and inbeingalittlemorecircular inoutline.

Theshellfrom the Galapagosagreessoexactlywithwhatwe knowofE.pourtalesii and with

my

ownrecollectionofthetypespecimendestroyed inthe Chicagofire, thatI

am

unwilUngtoseparateit,though thedistancebetween thetwolocalities isso great.

Theoccurrenceofthisshellatthe Galapagosisofgreatinterestapartfromits

supposedconnectionwith the Floridianspecies.

No

speciesofEaliotisisknown from the westcoastofSouth America,ofCentralAmerica,orofNorthAmericasouth ofnorthern Mexico. Thereareoneortwosmallnot nearly related species inthe Melanesian Islands and northAustralia. So the present species is remarkably isolated. Nothing ofthe sorthasbeen previouslyreported from theGalapagos.

Two

specimens wereobtained,neithercontainingthesoftparts. The^originaltype ofE.pourtalesiicontainedtheanimal. Itwould probably bereferred tothesection Padollus.

U.S. NATIONALMUSEUM PROCEEDINGS,VOL. 48 PL.45

Outside Viewsof Haliotis pourtalesiiandH. dalli.

Forexplanation of plate see pages660and 661.

U.S. NATIONALMUSEUM PROCEEDINGS.VOL. 48 PL.46

InsideViewsof Haliotis pourtalesiiandH.dalli.

Forexplanation of plate see pages660and 661.