Australian Marine Shells: prosobranch gastropods, part 1

In the words of its own Introduction, 'this volume is the first of two which gather together current information about Australian marine prosobranch molluscs and describe and illustrate their shells as an aid to identification for the purposes of business or pleasure'. Part two will deal with the neogastropods (Muricoidea, Cancellarioidea and ' Conoidea). The present part includes the remaining orders of prosobranchs, following the most recent classification ID that the three ptenoglossan superfamilies Triphoroidea, Janthinoidea and Eulimoidea come at the end of the hook. The Heterobranchia are ranked as a separate subclass, so the families Architectonicidae, Valvatidae, Rissoellidae and Pyramidellidae are not included here.

The introductory section includes hints on shell collecting (with heavy emphasis on conservation), a select bibliography of books illustrating Australian shells, a list of shell magazines and 'technical 'journals (which omits the Journal of Conchology!) and a section on classification and nomenclature. This last may be faulted where it states, erroneously (p. 24), that if an author did not designate a type species for a generic name 'the first one which appears rter the new name automatically becomes the type species', and that precedence in the case of simultaneously published synonyms is determined by page priority, which is contrary to the 'first reviser' provision of the International Laws of Nomenclature [sic]. In the systematic part of the book, each superfamily and family has a Descriptive introduction, with references to recent taxonomic revisions. The genera, each with a note of its type species and geographical range, are arranged alphabetically within their families; the species, alphabetical within (cnera and subgenera, arc individually described in most cases, and may have an indication of size, distribution, habitat and synonymy. Most species are illustrated, with a coloured photograph for the larger species and a line Drawing for the smaller ones. So much for the objective description of the book, but does it live up to its promise? I must admit to some disappointment on two counts, the design of the book (over which the author possibly had little control) and the scientific content.

The book is awkward to use as it is both large (A4 format) and heavy (printed on 'art' paper, so coloured @ustrations can be scattered throughout). Occasionally this scattering is appropriate, as with the excellent photographs of living molluscs on the pages of captions facing the colour plates of shells, but in other cases it is merely irritating as when uncaptioned cut-outs of shells are used to embellish the contents and introductory pages, with the text contoured round them. At worst (p. 20) a splendid species of Calliostoma or Astele is illustrated in two views; as there is no reference to it from the text and it does not occur among the plates, the frustrated reader is left to wonder whether it is an Australian species or not, especially as it bears a close resemblance to the West Atlantic C. schroederi. The index pages are similarly peppered with 're-cycled', though captioned, drawings.

According to the author, the main use of this book 'will probably be as an aid to identification of specimens'. In this aim the book is largely successful, and a welcome addition to the rather limited number of serious works on the extensive Australian malacofauna. It must be said, however, that identification would have been helped by more Barkers (verbal or pictorial) to the characters that distinguish one species from another, especially in speciose families such as the Epitoniidae or Ranellidae. The colour photography is of superb quality, but sometimes the individual illustrations are just too small (e.g. Trochidae) to show sufficient detail for confident identification. The drawings of the smaller species are less successful and in difficult groups, such as the Triphoridae, are rather inadequate. Many of the terms used in the descriptions of the species are not included in the 6-page glossary (e.g. teloconch, plicae, fenestrate).

From its title (and price!) the reviewer expected this volume to be at least as comprehensive (within its taxonomic limits) as Powell's New Zealand Mollusca or Keen's Sea Shells of tropical West America, but in fact the author has given short measure in several groups where there has been no recent revision. For some (e.g. Triphoridae, Eulimidae) only representative species of each genus are mentioned, while for the Skeneidae only one species is Bustratcd to represent the entire family. Less excusably, for information on the 50-odd Australian species of Cingulopsidae and Eatoniellidae the reader is simply referred to the literature. For other families it is uncertain whether the coverage is comprehensive or not. A few particular shortcomings may be mentioned. All the "Acmaeidae' included are currently Lottiidae; Rissooidea has been conserved for the name of the superfamily, lather than Truncatelloidea; some species of the masculine genus Polinices have been treated as feminine (fitrosa and fwiisiana); the figure ofNerita undata on p. 38 is labelled Nertia undosa; the smaller figure of'Oxygj/rus keraudrenif on p. 254 does not show the characteristic keel, and looks more like a larval shell of Carinaria; Melanella and M. dufresnei [sic] (p. 286) were published by Bowdich, 1822, not 1832. It is a pity that neither the illustration nor the description of Melanella dufresnii distinguish it from many other Melanella species, as the Lizard Island locality would, if true, be an interesting extension of its range. Despite such limitations and minor .criticisms, Australian marine Shells will be indispensable to the collector, curator or environmental administrator dealing with the marine prosobranchs of the Australian faunal areas. Together with the second volume, which should be comprehensive for the neogastropods, it will undoubtedly become the standard work of reference.