A monograph of Christmas Island (Indian Ocean) : physical features and geology / by Charles W. Andrews / with descriptions of the fauna and flora by numerous contributors.

  • British Museum (Natural History). Department of Geology
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A monograph of Christmas Island (Indian Ocean) : physical features and geology / by Charles W. Andrews / with descriptions of the fauna and flora by numerous contributors. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the second and third labials; eyes distinguishable; upper head- scales a little larger than the scales on the body; four upper labials. Diameter of body 50 to 66 times in the total length ; tail nearly twice as long as broad, ending in a spine. Twenty scales round the body. Pale brownish, each scale with a brown spot; these spots largest and darkest on the dorsal surface, where they form longitudinal lines. Total length, 480 mm. Two specimens were captured on the occasion of the visit of the il Plying Pish.” Several more were brought home by Mr. Andrews, who found them in damp places, under rocks and fallen trees.- Only seen out on dark rainy days. [Turtles are often seen round the coasts of the island, and they^ occasionally come up on to the white beaches to deposit their eggs in the coral sand—one nest on the West White Beach contained 142 eggs. There are probably three species—Thalassochelys caretta, Clielone imbricata, and C. mydas. In January, a small specimen of the last was speared in shallow water near North-East Point.—- C. W.A.] MOLLUSCA. By E. A. Smith, P.Z.S. (PLATE VIII.) The land - shells of Christmas Island are insignificant both in size and the number of species. Eleven different forms were enumerated by the writer in 1888,1 nine of which were collected by Mr. Andrews, besides single specimens of three additional species, namely, Opeas subula, Melampus castaneus, and Assiminea andrewsiana. These, however, do not throw any additional light on the relationship of the fauna with that of other parts of the world. Although seven of the fourteen species recorded are, so far as we know, peculiar to the island, it must be pointed out that they belong to genera the species of which have no very striking characters. The three forms of Lamprocystis are very much alike, and approximate very closely to certain species from the Philippines and the Malay Archipelago. The Succineas also present no marked features, and might have been found anywhere. Opeas, too, is a genus notorious for the sameness of its species and the wide- 1 Froc. Zool. Soc., 18S8, p. 536.