Samples of dumb-bell galaxies in southern rich clusters.

We present two optically selected samples of dumb-bell galaxies extracted from the southern extension of the Abell catalogue and we discuss the selection criteria. The first sample is a volume limited sample obtained by selecting the dumb-bell galaxies in all the 171 clusters within a comoving distance of 210h^-1^ Mpc^-1^ regardless of Bautz-Morgan classification. The second sample is constituted by dumb- bell systems belonging to the 381 clusters of BM I or I-II type. From the latter sample it is not possible to extract a volume limited sample due to the selection effect present in the Bautz-Morgan classification of the southern Abell catalogue.