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CONCHOLOGY.
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BRITISH CONCHOLOGY,
OR AN ACCOUNT OF
THE MOLLUSCA
WHICH NOW INHABIT THE BRITISH ISLES AND THE
SURROUNDING SEAS.
VOLUME IV.
MARINE SHELLS,
IN CONTINUATION OF THE GASTROPODA AS PAR AS
THE BULLA FAMILY.
By JOHN GWYN JEFFREYS, F.R.S., F.G.S., &c.
LONDON: JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW
MDCCCLXVU.
[ The right of Tranalaion it reserved . ]
PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, KED LION COUUT, FLEET STREET.
Genus III. RISSO'A* Freminville. PL I. f. 1.
Body rather slender : mantle furnished at the upper corner (and in some species also at the lower corner) of the mouth of the shell with a minute tentacular process: head depressed above and extended in front, where it forms a long and stout snout-like projection, which is divided at the extremity into two lobes, that serve as lips ; it is armed with a pair of jaws and a very short spinous tongue : tentacles wholly or partially setose or hairy ; tips blunt : eyes on small prominences or tubercles, one at the outer base of each tentacle : gills composed of from a dozen to twenty separate strands : foot lanceolate, narrow, double-edged, broader and more or less truncated in front, some- what contracted in the middle, and pointed behind ; sole grooved down the middle for about half its length towards the tail, whence it emits a glutinous thread by which the animal suspends itself to foreign bodies or to the surface of the water : opercular lobe large, divided into two wing-like expansions : beneath it at its hinder extremity issues a short tentacular appendage, which is in some species double or triple.
Shell oblong or oval, seldom umbilicate : epidermis very slight : spire usually elongated : mouth oval or trumpet-shaped, angulated above and slightly expanded below ; its lips or mar- gins are continuous.
The Rissoce are minute, but elegantly shaped : —
" inest sua gratia parvis."
They are spread over all the globe — although the tropi- cal seas have not been so well searched as those of the northern hemisphere for such small shells. Of the 25 species known in the British Isles, 15 inhabit the littoral and laminarian zones, and 10 the coralline and deep-sea zones. Woodward says that there are altogether 70 recent and 100 fossil species.
i
* Dedicated to M. Risso, the well-known naturalist of Nice. VOL. IV. B
75035
LITTORINID^E.
In a valuable paper by M. Morch, " On the Homo- logy of the Buccal Parts of the Mollusca " (Ann. and Mag. N. H., August 1865), the cheek-plates or immo- veable mandibles of this and other genera are described as two lateral plates, without cutting- edges, composed of scaly or needle-shaped particles, which seem only of use to protect the inside of the mouth from being in- jured by the spinous tongue. The opercular appendage was first noticed by Bivona. It seems strange that Philippi could not detect it, and that notwithstanding he had figured seven species (including Barleeia rubra) he should have remarked, " Hse species omnes simillimis animalibus incoluntur." The pallial filament protrudes at the will of the animal from the upper or anal corner of the aperture of the shell. Hydrobia and Odostomia have similar processes. In Rissoa striatula and R. can^ cellata there are two, one on each side. These, there- fore, are certainly not organs of generation. The fila- ment is found in every individual ; and all the above- named genera are dicecious or unisexual. It may be an auxiliary tentacle. The spawn-cases are solitary and hemispherical.
The ' Transactions of the Imperial Academy of Sci- ences at Vienna *■ for 1863 contain an elaborate and admirably illustrated monograph by Gustav Schwartz v. Mohrenstern of part of this difficult group ; I hope the remaining portion will soon be published. He has provisionally adopted the views of Messrs. H. and A. Adams to the extent of considering Alvania a distinct genus ; but his reason for so doing seems to have origi- nated in a misapprehension. According to the learned Austrian conchologist, Alvania is distinguished from Rissoa by having three caudal filaments instead of one. The authors of the ' Genera of recent Mollusca ' say as
RISSOA.
to Alvania, " Operculigerous lobe winged on each side, usually with three caudal cirrhi." Now their type of this genus (R. abyssicola) has but a single caudal fila- ment ; and Barleeia rubra (which, under the name of R. fulva, is comprised in the same genus) has none at all. Of the 16 other species of Alvania enumerated by them, the animal of one only (R. reticulata or Beanii) appears to have been known to them. In their genus Cingula, however, we find R. semistriata, which noto- riously has three caudal filaments, although the charac- ters assigned to that genus are as follows : — " Opercular lobe and caudal cirrhus indistinct or rudimentarv." This last-named genus comprises also Barleeia rubra, var. unifasciata. Under these circumstances it is well that Herr v. Mohrenstern has not absolutely decided on retaining the genus Alvania. I may here observe that the type of Risso's genus Alvania (from Leach's MS.) and 20 others out of the 23 which he described are can- cellated shells, the remaining two being fossil species and erroneously referred to the Turbo interruptus and T. parvus of Montagu. The generic characters given by Risso will apply to almost every convoluted shell with an entire mouth and horny operculum ; and at the most Alvania can only be a synonym of Rissoa. The other genera proposed by Messrs. Adams are in my opinion not more maintainable. Onoba is described as having the whorls not longitudinally ribbed, and the peristome not dilated. In the type (R. striata) both these cha- racters exist to a certain extent. The onlv species as- signed to Ceratia (viz. R. proximo) cannot be distin- guished generically from R. vitrea (placed by Messrs. Adams in Rissoa) or from R. striata. Their genus Setia is characterized as having the tentacles pilose, and the operculigerous lobe destitute of a caudal filament ;
b 2
4 LITTORIXIDiE.
R. pulcherrima is its solitary representative. In every species oiRissoa the tentacles are pilose ; and R. pulcher- rima has an unusually long and pointed caudal filament.
My examination of the Rissoce has been on the same extensive scale as that of the Pisidia. The apology frequently offered for neglecting such tiny objects is unsatisfactory and unworthy of a naturalist — as if the Creator had bestowed more care in framing leviathan than in constructing the microscopic diatom, or as if the faculty which we enjoy of observing His varied works ought to be restricted to the contemplation of great things as being alone worthy of our exalted notions !
Fleming gave the name of Cingula to this genus, ap- parently being unacquainted with the scientific literature of the continent ; and he proposed another genus (Cy- clostrema) for R. Zetlandica. According to Philippi other species were separated by the Baron Bivona, under the generic title of Loxostoma. But such modest at- tempts at classification were far excelled by Leach, who repudiated Rissoa, and divided it into no less than eight genera, some of which contained the very same species as those described in others of these so-called genera.
The species being numerous, it may be convenient to divide them on a conchological basis : —
A. Cancellated ; outer lip usually strengthened by a rib, and
sometimes notched within. 1. striatula ; 2. lactea ; 3. can- cellata ; 4. calathus ; 5. reticulata ; 6. cimico'ides ; 7. Jef- frey si ; 8. punctura ; 9. abyssicola.
B. Ribbed lengthwise and spirally striated ; outer lip thickened
and reflected. 10. Zetlandica; 11. costata.
C. Mostly ribbed lengthwise, and spirally striated ; outer lip
usually strengthened by a rib. 12. joarva ; 13. incon- spicua ; 14. albella •; 15. membranacea ; 16. viola cea ; 17. costulata ; 18. striata.
D. Spirally striated, or smooth ; outer Up plain. 19. proxima ;
RISSOA. 5
20. wired; 21. pulcherrima; 22. fulgida ; 23. soluta ; 24. semistriata ; 25. cingillus.
It will be seen, however, by the following description of the species, that some of them cannot be placed strictly in one group more than in another.
A. Cancellated ; outer lip usually strengthened by a rib, and
sometimes notched within.
1. Rissoa stria'tula*, Montagu.
Turbo striatulas, Mont. Test. Br. p. 306, t. 10. f. 5. B. striatula, F. & H. iii. p. 73, pi. lxxix. f. 7, 8.
Body yellowish-white, with a blood-red mark over the head : mantle forming a small oval lappet or lobe on each side of the neck as in Trochus ; its outer edge is furnished with two thread- like and finely ciliated processes, one at each of the corners of the mouth of the shell, and which project or hang down, seemingly at the will of the animal : snout longish, narrow, cloven at the extremity: tentacles thread-shaped, somewhat flattened on the upper and lower surfaces, with blunt tips ; they are clothed with a very few short cilia : eyes on small tubercles : foot squarish in front, and pointed behind ; when extended it is apparently divided (as in many other, perhaps every, species ofliissoa) into two parts, anterior and posterior : opercular or caudal appendage single, rather long, but not projecting beyond the tail or point of the foot ; it issues from beneath the operculigerous lobe : excrement oval, dark-green.
Shell conic-oval, with a turreted outline and a slightly twisted base, solid, opaque, somewhat glossy when the surface is not obscured by a mineral coating : sculpture, several laminar transverse ridges, 10 or 11 of which are on the body-whorl, and 3 only on each of the next three whorls ; those encircling the body- whorl are very unequal in size, the 3 uppermost being by far the largest and most apart one from another ; the 3 basal ridges are also widely separated, the intermediate ones being close together ; the uppermost ridge is placed at some distance from the suture ; the interstices of all the ridges are crossed by numerous incurved striae, so as to give the appearance of very fine lattice-work ; these are stronger and more conspicu-
* Slightly striated.
6 LITTORINID.E.
ous on the upper than under part of the shell ; lahial rib thick, sometimes double, or else having a varix on the body-whorl ; top whorls quite smooth and polished : colour that of alabaster, with a scarcely perceptible tinge of yellow and occasionally an ochreous stain : spire moderately produced and pointed : ivhorls 5-6, convex, the last composing rather more than two-thirds of the shell : suture distinct, but not deep or channelled ; the separation of the whorls is chiefly indicated by the prominent spiral ridge which surmounts each : mouth large, occupying about half the length of the spire, roundish-oval, angulated somewhat acutely above and obtusely below, and slightly ex- panded outwards ; inside plain : outer lip semicircular, forming a very narrow rim within the labial rib : inner lip broad and thick, reflected on the pillar, and united with the outer lip at the upper corner of the mouth : operculum pale horncolour, with a short lateral spire, and very delicately striated. L. 0-215. B. 0-15.
Habitat : Lower part of the littoral zone in the Channel Isles, and on the coasts of Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall ; bv no means common. It has also been found at Margate (Hanley), Tenby (Lyons), Arran Isles, co. Galway (Barlee), Miltown Malbay, co. Clare (Harvey, fide Thompson), Bantry Bay (J. G. J.), Dublin Bay (Waller), off Larne, co. Antrim (Hyndman and J. G. J.), Cnmbrae, Arran, N.B. (J. Smith), Lamlash Bay (Norman) . Fossil in a bone-cavern at Mardolce in Sicily (Philippi) . North and west of France (De Ger- ville, Cailliaud, and others) ; Cadiz (Mf Andrew) ; south of France (Michaud and others) ; Dalmatia (Brusina) ; Spezzia (J. G. J.) ; Naples (Scacchi, fide Philippi).
This, as well as R. cancellata, adheres with some tenacity to the stones on which it is found ; and when detached it also spins a fine byssal thread, by means of which it suspends itself in the water. The carving of the shell is inimitable. One of my specimens (probably a male), although full-grown, is little more than three- quarters of a line in length, and of proportionate breadth.
RISSOA.
The Turbo striatulus of Linne appears to have been Parthenia varicosa of Forbes = Chemnitzia pallida, Phi- lippi. Da Costa described and figured the present species as T. carinatus ; and I would have adopted that original and expressive name, were it not for the consideration that, no subsequent author having done so, I have no wish to be singular, or to make any unnecessary change in the nomenclature. Turton called this shell T. monilis, Michaud R. cochlea, Philippi R. labiata, and Leach Per- sephona brevis.
2. R. lac'tea*, Michaud.
E. laciea, Mich. Descr. esp. Kiss. p. 9, f. 11, 12; F. & H. iii. p. 76, pi. lxxix. f. 3, 4.
Shell oval, compressed towards the mouth, rather thin, semitransparent and somewhat glossy when living, opaque and lustreless when dead : sculpture, slight and gently curved lon- gitudinal ribs, which are seldom continued below the periphery and are crowded near the outer lip ; there are about 20 on the last and 10 on the penultimate whorl ; these ribs are crossed by fine spiral striee, 15 of which are on the last and 9 on the penultimate whorl ; the ribs are more prominent than the striae, the points of intersection never being nodulous ; there is sometimes, but rarely, a slight labial rib ; the first two whorls are perfectly smooth : colour whitish, with a faint tinge of yellow, in dead shells milk-white : spire abruptly pointed : ivhorls 5-6, moderately convex, compressed towards the front ; the last composes nearly three-fourths of the shell, and the first two are minute : suture slight but distinct : mouth oval, produced and angulated above, spread out below, not expanded outwards ; inside plain : outer lip rather thick : inner lip broad, reflected over the pillar, and united with the outer Up at the upper corner of the mouth, where there is a considerable thickening : operculum pale horncolour, with a short spire, and not conspicuously striated. L. 0-233. B. 0-15.
Habitat : Under stones at extreme low water of spring tides, and thrown upon the beach : St. Aubin's
* Milk-white.
8 LITTORINID.E.
Bay, Jersey (Hanley, Norman, andDodd) ; Herm (Mac- culloch, Lukis, and Barlee) ; Barricane, north Devon (Miss Jeffreys, who never was in the Channel Isles or abroad). It is our rarest Rissoa. Sicilian tertiaries (Philippi) . The only northern locality to my knowledge is Bohuslan in the south of Sweden, where Malm dredged two specimens (both dead) in different places. By his kind permission one of them, from 12 f., is now before me. Its southern range is extensive, and embraces the north and west of France (Collard des Cherres, Cailliaud, Aucapitaine, and others), Vigo, 4 f., Gijon and Faro in Algarve, and Corunna (M'Andrew), Adriatic (Heller), Dalmatia (Brusina), northern shores of the Mediterra- nean (Michaud, J. G. J., and others), Ajaccio (Requien), Naples (Scacchi), near Catania (Philippi), Algeria (Mf Andrew and WeinkaufF).
Turbo cancellatus (Beudant) of Lamarck.
3. B. cancella'ta*, Da Costa.
Turbo canceUahis, Da Costa, Br. Conch, p. 104, pi. viii. f. 6, 9. B. crc- nidata, F. & H. iii. p. 80, pi. lxxix. f. 1, 2.
Body milk-white, with a pinkish spot above the head : pallktl lappet small, as in R. striatula : patlial filaments slender and microscopically ciliated, resembling minute auxiliary tentacles, one at each corner of the mouth of the shell : snout narrow and cloven at the point, extensile : tentacles cylindrical, but somewhat compressed on the upper and under sides, finely and closely ciliated all over ; they are occasionally borne erect, or now and then upturned : eyes on small tubercles : foot squarish in front, with small angular corners, contracted in the middle, and attenuated towards the tail, which is bluntly pointed : appendage short, not projecting beyond the tail, apparently bicuspid, but really consisting of three filaments, one of which is smaller than the other two and is sometimes a mere bulb.
Shell conic-oval, solid, opaque, somewhat glossy : sculpture, strong longitudinal ribs, 16 of which are on the body- whorl,
* Latticed.
RISSOA. 9
15 on the penultimate, 14 on the succeeding whorl, and 13 on the next, not more than half the last number being discernible on the upper whorl, when they altogether disappear ; these ribs are continued to the base, which is furnished with an an- gular projection or knob, owing to this part of the pillar being greatly thickened ; there are also equally strong spiral ribs, 6 of which are on the body- whorl, 3 or 4 on the penultimate, and 2 only on each of the succeeding three whorls ; the first two or three whorls are apparently quite smooth and glossy, but under the microscope exhibit extremely fine and numerous longitudinal wavy striae ; the two sets of ribs cross each other, leaving between them square cavities and forming at the points of intersection raised and rather sharp tubercles, imparting to the surface a- prickly aspect; labial rib broad, and traversed by the spiral ribs up to the mouth, the edge of which conse- quently becomes scalloped or indented : colour yellowish-white, with often more or less of a rufous tinge, or indistinctly marked by two reddish -brown bands, a narrow one below the suture and a broad one round the periphery ; sometimes the colour is milk-white ; the throat or inside of the mouth is frequently stained by reddish-brown : spire short and acute : whorls 6-7, convex, the last occupying two-thirds of the total length ; the first two or three whorls are disproportionately small : suture broadly excavated : mouth roundish oval, expanding outwards, finely and closely ridged lengthwise on the inside of the labial rib ; there are 12 of these ridges, besides usually a blunt tubercle on the lower part of the pillar : outer lip thin : inner lip forming a rather broad glaze on the pillar, which is imper- forate : operculum not very thin, having a somewhat lateral spire (as in Littorina), and conspicuously and closely striated in a curved direction corresponding with the line of growth. L. 0-185. B. 0-115.
Yar. paupercula. Dwarfed, more regularly oval and solid, with a proportionally longer spire. L. 0-135. B. 0*005.
Habitat : Rocks and stones at low water of spring- tides, and the coralline zone, in the Channel Isles and on many parts of the Cornish coast ; rather common, especially at Herm. Received from Sandwich (Mon- tagu) ; west bay of Portland, 15 f. (Mf Andrew and Forbes) ; Torquay (Hanley) ; Salcombe Bay (Barlee) j
B O
10 LITTORINIDjE.
off Lundy Island (Mf Andrew) ; Manorbeer, Pembroke- shire (J. G. J.) ; Isle of Man, " one broken specimen from deep water on the north coast " (Forbes) ; Nymph bank, 50 f. (Mf Andrew) ; Bantry (Miss Hutchins, Thompson, and Barlee); Dublin Bay (Turton and Brown); Belfast Bay (Hyndman) ; off Lame, co. Antrim, 18-20 f. (J. G. J.) ; Lough Strangford, 7-20 f. (Dickie) ; Tyn- ingham sands, N.B. (Brown); Lamlash (Landsborough); Loch Fyne, and the Hebrides as far north as Stornoway (Barlee and J. G. J.). A single dead and worn speci- men of the variety was found by me at Herm ; it may belong to a distinct species or be exotic. R. cancellata is fossil in the Sussex beds (Godwin-Austen) ; Ireland (J. Smith) ; Calabria (Philippi) . Its living range is mostly southern, from Cherbourg (Becluz and Mace) and Morbihan (Tasle) to the Gulf of Gascony (D'Or- bigny pere, and J. G. J.), and Corunna (M' Andrew and H. Woodward) , throughout the Mediterranean (Michaud and others) ; Adriatic (Heller) ; Dalmatia (Brasilia) ; Mogador, 3 f. (M'Andrew); iEgean (Forbes, fide M 'An- drew) ; Madeira, 15-24 f., and Canary Isles, 12-60 f. (Mf Andrew). The last-named naturalist also took some dead specimens in his Norwegian dr edgings.
It is active and bold, floats like its congeners, and spins a byssal thread instantaneously on being detached from a crawling position. The incessant play of the cilia that fringe the tentacles is very striking ; it appears to be caused bv the action of a double row of muscles in each tentacle, arranged in the form of a siphon, which is perceptible through the transparency of the integument. The pallial filaments probably serve the purpose of sup- plementary tentacles to warn the animal of impending- danger. In spite of its stoutness the shell is sometimes perforated, possibly by Murex erinaceus or M. corallinus.
RISSOA. 11
This is the Turbo cimex of Donovan, Montagu, and other conchologists (but not of Linne), R. crenulata of Michaud, and Persephona Hutchinsiana of Leach. The R. lactea of Michaud having been previously described by Lamarck as Turbo cancellatus (but subsequently to Da Costa's publication) , we must either call that species cancellata and give up the name lactea, retaining crenu- lata for the present species, or else adhere to the strict rule of priority. Convenience, as well as justice, makes the latter alternative more desirable. R. cancellata of Desmarets is the Linnean R. cimex, which (as Turbo calathiscus of Montagu) Mr. Thompson of Belfast seems to have mistaken for the species now described.
4. E. ca'lathus *> Forbes and Hanley.
R. calathm, F. & H. iii. p. 82, pi. lxxviii. f. 3.
Shell more conical and coarsely sculptured than the next species (R. reticulata) ; longitudinal striae more prominent ; penultimate whorl not quite so broad in proportion to the body- whorl, and having usually but 4 rows of spiral striae — although this last character is not constant, there being sometimes 5 and even 6 rows. Colour, size, and other particulars the same as in R. reticulata.
Habitat : Guernsey and Herm ; rather common. Land's End (Hockin) ; Whitesand Bay (Mrs. Flack) ; off Penzance, 15-20 f. (Mf Andrew and Forbes) ; Shell - ness, Kent (J. G. J.); off the Mizen Head, 50 f. (M' An- drew); Kilkee, co. Clare (Warren, fide Thompson); Isle of Man (Packe) ; co. Antrim (Hyndman and J. G. J.) ; Clyde district (Smith and Landsborough) ; Loch Car- ron (J. G. J.) ; Hebrides (Barlee). Coralline Crag at Sutton (S. Wood, as R. abyssicola). Drontheim, 5-40 f., and Vigo (M< Andrew) ; Morbihan (Taste) ; Gulf of
* A wicker basket.
12 LITTORINID.E.
Lyons (Martin) ; Nice (Verany) ; Spezzia (J. Gr. J.) ; Canaries (Mf Andrew in mus. Brit.).
This is a very doubtful species ; and concholo gists must exercise their own discretion as to admitting it. My impression is that it constitutes only a variety of R. reti- culata. The authors of the ' British Mollusca' say that the two " may usually be distinguished with readiness by the smaller size of their latticework. Every degree of reticulation, from coarse to fine, may be seen by com- paring a sufficient number of specimens.
5. R. reticulata *, Montagu.
Turbo reticulatus, Mont, Test. Br. p. 322, t. 21. f. 1. B. Beanii, F. & H. iii. p. 84, pi. lxxix. f. 5, 6.
Body yellowish-white : mantle furnished with a single fila- mental process : snout " near its termination at the upper sur- face appears to have attached to it two very small similar shields, one on each side, independent of the terminal minute subcircular flat lobes : " tentacles compressed, slender, rather long, " not setose " [?] : eyes on short light-yellow or orange pedicles: foot " subrotund, scarcely auricled, but grooved in front sufficiently to form a shallow labium, slightly constricted anteriorly at one- third the length, gently tapering to a rather obtuse lanceolate but not emarginate termination : " opercular lobe plain, moderately expanded : appendage consisting of three blunt, cylindrical, short cirri : gill composed of 12-15 single, pale-yellow, short strands, which are visible when the neck is much protruded. (Clark.)
Shell oblong, solid, nearly opaque, more or less glossy : sculpture, numerous somewhat obscure and slightly curved lon- gitudinal ribs, seldom extending to the base, and crossed by equally numerous but much more distinct and thread-like spiral ribs, which cover the surface of the last 4 whorls ; the points of intersection are sometimes nodulous, but rarely on the lower part of the body-whorl ; there are 6 or 7 rows of spiral striae on the penultimate whorl ; labial rib thick and traversed by the spiral striae, occasionally forming a separate varix ; top whorls smooth and glossy, showing under the microscope faint
* Reticulated.
RISSOA. 13
traces of punctures : colour pale yellowish-brown, with now and then two bands of a tawny hue, one immediately under the suture and the other below the periphery ; pillar-lip often stained with reddish-brown : spire acute : ivhorls 6-7, rather convex, and gradually enlarging, the last occupying about three- fifths of the spire ; the penultimate is nearly as broad as the last whorl: suture slight, narrowly excavated : mouth roundish- oval, somewhat expanded outwards, finely and closely furrowed on the inside of the labial rib ; the furrows correspond with the spiral strise : outer lip thin and very narrow, as in all the other species of this section : inner lip slight and reflected on the pillar, behind which there is a narrow groove, but never a decided umbilical chink : operculum filmy, with a short spire, and finely striated in the line of growth. L. 0*15. B. 0-075.
Habitat : Nearly every part of our coasts, from the Land's End to Lerwick, in 7-50 f. ; not uncommon. Fossil in the south of Italy and in Sicily (Philippi — assuming this to be his R. textilis) . R. reticulata of S. Wood, from the Coralline Crag, more resembles R. cala- thus, and mav be an intermediate variety. Loven, Sars, Mf Andrew, Danielssen, and Malm have recorded the present species as Scandinavian, from Molde in Finmark to Bohuslan in the south of Sweden, the two last-named authors giving respectively 40-60 and 20-30 f. North coast of Holland, 17f. (Malm) ; Vigo (M'Andrew); Gulf of Lyons (Martin); TD&lm&tisL (Brusmsi}2LS Alvaiiia Beani) ; Cannes (Mace); Spezzia (the Marquis Doria and J.G. J.); Algeria (Weinkauff) ; and iEgean 30-185 f. (Forbes).
The sculpture of some specimens is rather stronger than that of others. Mediterranean specimens are fre- quently marked by highly coloured bands. This shell is more oblong than R. cimico'ides, and not so conical (partly in consequence of the penultimate whorl being prominent in R. reticulata) , and the cancellation is finer and closer. " The animal is active, and freely shows its points'" (Clark).
14 LITTORINID^.
It is the R. Beanii of Hanley. R. teoctilis of Philippi is probably the immature state. Adams's Turbo reticu- latus (" T. quatuor anfractibus reticularis, apertura sub- rotunda. Obs. color albus.") appears to have been the young of R. striata ; but that of Montagu is unquestion- ably the one now under consideration. R. reticulata of Philippi, a Sicilian fossil, is very different. Turton, in his ' Conchological Dictionary/ interchanged the characters of the present species and R. punctura, and reversed the admeasurements.
6. R. cimicoi'des *, Forbes.
R. cimicoides, Forb. in Rep. Br. Assoc, for 1843, p. 189. R. sculpta, F. & H. iii. p. 88, pi. lxxx. f. 5, 6.
Body milk-white and almost transparent : snout short, bifid, of a brownish hue : tentacles slender, with blunt tips : eyes small : foot broad, squarish in front, and pointed behind.
Shell conic-oval, solid, opaque, somewhat glossy : sculpture, several stout and slightly curved longitudinal ribs, not extending to the base, and crossed by more regular and thread-like spiral striae or riblets, which cover the surface of the last four whorls ; small tubercles or nodules are formed at the points of inter- section ; there are 4 rows of spiral striae on the penultimate whorl ; labial rib thick (sometimes double), traversed by the spiral striae, and marked with minute and numerous hues of growth; top whorls encircled with close- set and punctured striae : colour pale yellowish-white, more or less deeply tinged with reddish-brown, and having usually an imperfect streak of the latter colour close to the labial rib on the outside, which, terminates at the periphery in a broad mark, covering three of the spiral striae ; these markings appear to result from two obscure bands, one below the suture and the other round the base ; apex light orange : spire sharp-pointed : whorls 6-7, sloping upwards, compressed, somewhat gradually enlarging, the last occupying about three-fifths of the spire : suture slight, but distinctly channelled : mouth more round than oval, ex- panding a little outwards, finely notched or furrowed on the inside of the labial rib ; these notches or furrows are not caused
* Resembling R. cimex.
RISSOA. 15
by the impress of the spiral striae, although they correspond in number and position : outer lip thin : inner lip slight, reflected on the pillar ; there is no umbilical chink : operculum filmy, with a short spire. L. 015. B. 0-085.
Var. minima. Dwarf; spire very short.
Habitat : Coralline zone, Guernsey (J. G. J.); Hel- ford (Hockin) ; Exmouth (coll. Clark) ; Coquet and Berwick Bay (Mennell); Cork Harbour (Wright); west coast of Ireland (Hoskyns); Larne, co. Antrim (J.G.J.) ; Skye and Hebrides (Mf Andrew and others) ; Aberdeen- shire coast (Dawson); Shetland (Barlee and J. G. J.). The variety was found at Plymouth by Mr. Barlee. R. cimico'ides inhabits the iEgean, 2-69 f. (Forbes) ; Dal- matia (Brusina) ; Gulf of Lyons (Martin) ; Bohuslan, 50-80 f. (Martin) ; Bergen (Lilljeborg) ; upper Norway (M ' Andrew) ; and Greenland (coll. Mf Andrew).
I have no doubt that this is the R. cimico'ides of Forbes, having compared specimens so named by him in the British Museum and Mr. M' Andrew's collection with the original description of that species, as well as with the Scotch specimens from which the description and figures of R. sculpta in the ' British Mollusca ' were taken. The R. sculpta of Philippi appears to have a more regularly oval shape, the larger whorls are cross-barred ("cla- thrati 9>) , and the inside of the mouth is smooth. This agrees with R. calatkus of Forbes and Hanley, except in the latter having the throat crenated. Loven regarded R. abyssicola as Philippics shell. Pasithea nigra of Tot- ten, from Rhode Island, is allied to the present species.
7. R. Jeffrey'si "*, Waller.
B. Jeffrey^, Wall, in Ann. & Mag. N. H. s. 3. xiy. p. 136.
Shell conic-oval, with a somewhat turreted outline, mode-
* So named out of compliment to the author ot" the present work.
16 LITTORINlDiE.
rately solid, semitransparent and rather glossy : sculpture, numerous fine longitudinal striae, which are crossed by stronger, fewer, and rib-like transverse striae, forming by their inter- section an open network ; the longitudinal striae are gently curved, and they do not reach the base, although there are sometimes traces of them below the periphery ; the labial rib is strong but not thick, and traversed by the spiral striae only ; of these striae 3 or 4 are more conspicuous than the rest on the body-whorl ; examined microscopically the whole surface is covered with extremely close-set spiral lines ; and even by the aid of a Cocldington the top whorls may be seen to have a few spiral rows of salient and reentering angles, which last prefigure the cancellated structure of the adult shell : colour clear-white : spire ending in a blunt and almost truncated point : whorls 5, convex, gradually enlarging, the last exceeding all the others put together in the ratio of nearly 5 to 3 when viewed with the mouth upwards, but when placed with the mouth down- wards these proportions are reversed ; the apex is compressed : suture very deep and channelled : mouth more round than oval, scarcely expanding outwards : outer lip thin, incurved above : inner Up slightly reflected, and having behind it a more or less distinct umbilical chink. L. 01. B. 0*065.
Habitat : Sandy ground off Unst (the most northern of the British Isles), at distances of about 8 and 30 miles from the land, in 70-85 f. ; rare. Norway (Lill- jeborg and Malm ; the locality mentioned to me by the latter is Eggersbank, and the depth 150 f.) ; North America (M 'Andrew, by whom it was received from a correspondent) .
The dried remains of the animal exhibit an orange tint in the region of the liver. Although of the same size as R. punctura, this is of a somewhat turreted shape, clear-white, and nearly transparent, the reticulation is much less crowded (resembling open lacework), the spiral striae in the middle are more prominent, the suture deeper, whorls more gradually increasing, and the apex is blunt and marked with a Vandyke pattern instead of having rows of punctures. The present case exemplifies
RISSOA. 17
what I said in the Introduction to this work (vol. i. p. xlvii) , viz. that the nncleus of the shell often furnishes the conchologist with an important character for dis- criminating species. This part, in fact, represents the earliest stage of growth, before external conditions have had any power in influencing or modifying the structure.
8. R. punctu'ra*, Montagu.
Turbo punctura, Mont. Test. Br. p. 320, t. 12. f. 5. R. punctura, F. & H. iii. p. 89, pi. lxxx. f. 8, 9.
Body yellowish, streaked with purple (marked with a small red dot under the neck near the eyes, Clark) : mantle furnished at each upper corner of the aperture of the shell with a short cylindrical process : tentacles thread- shaped, rather short, in- distinctly ringed, scalloped at the edges, and sparsely but finely setose : eyes slightly raised : foot squarish in front, and bluntly pointed behind : (opercular lobe very pale muddy-red- dish-brown, and having on each side, close to the junction of the foot with the rest of the body, an irregular, rather large, dusky or lead- coloured stripe, Clark) : appendage simple and short.
Shell conic-oval (in some specimens more oblong), rather solid, nearly opaque, and somewhat glossy : sculpture, nume- rous fine longitudinal and spiral ribs or striae, which by their decussation form minute squares, and are muricated at the points . of intersection ; the longitudinal ones are slightly curved and do not reach to the base ; the labial rib is more or less thick, according to age, and it occasionally leaves one or two varicose excrescences on the body- whorl ; sometimes it is placed close to the mouth, and at other times at a short distance from it ; the spiral ribs or striae are thread-like and usually are more conspicuous than the others ; the uppermost whorls exhibit under the microscope a few rows of punctures : colour dirty white, often tinged with yellow or reddish-brown, and now and then having the last whorl partially spotted or double- banded with the latter hue ; there is frequently also a blotch of reddish-brown outside the mouth, and a similar stain on the pillar-lip : spire pointed, usually rather elongated, rarely very short : whorls 6, convex, the last occupying about three-fifths
* From its punctured surface ; literally, a pricking.
18 LITTORlNID^l.
of the spire, the first minute and somewhat prominent : suture deep : mouth roundish- oval, scarcely expanding outwards : outer lip thin, not much incurved above : inner lip reflected on the pillar and at the base, behind which is a slight depression or chink : operculum filmy, with a short spire, and delicately striated. L. 0-1. B. 0-065.
Yar. diversa. Longitudinal ribs finer and more prominent, — a character which gives this variety a different aspect.
Habitat : Widely distributed, in the lower part of the laminarian zone and throughout the coralline zone, from Guernsey to Unst, at a depth of from 1-95 f. The variety is from Skye and Shetland. R. punctura occurs in upper tertiary deposits in Sussex (Godwin- Austen) , Ayrshire (Landsborough, fide Thompson) , and at Udde- valla (Malm), and in the post-glacial beds of Norway at various heights from the present level of the sea to 100 feet above it (Sars). Wood includes it (although with a doubt as to the identity of the species) in his 1 Crag Mollusca/ from the Coralline formation at Sutton; but his description shows that the outer lip is notched within, a character which the recent shell does not pos- sess. It inhabits Bohuslan, according to Loven, who called it R. textilis of Philippi ; Malm dredged it in the same district in 10-60 f., Danielssen at Christiansund- in 40-60 f., Mf Andrew in Nordland, and Sars at Tromso, Ox fjord, and elsewhere in Norway in 10-50 f. ; Tasle found it in Brittany < Martin has taken it in the Gulf of Lyons, Mace at Antibes, Verany at Nice, Brusina in Dalmatia, and M 'Andrew off Orotava, Canary Isles.
Of this species, again, we have two sizes, a large and small one.
It appears to be the Turbo retiformis of Montagu (from Walker's doubtful description and figure), R.puncturata of Macgillivray, R. approxima of Brown, and Turritella Dorvilleana of Leach.
RISSOA.
19
9. R. abyssi'cola*, Forbes.
B. abyssicola, F. & H. iii. p. 86, pi. lxxviii. f. 1. 2, and (animal) pi. JJ. f. 3.
Body whitish, with a faint tinge of yellow or saffron on the front, and microscopically speckled with flake-white: mantle rather thick- edged; pallial processes one on each side, short and not protruded beyond the mouth of the shell ; snout small and narrow, deeply cloven, carried somewhat in advance of the foot: tentacles thread-shaped, flattened, clothed with minute and short but not numerous cilia : eyes large and black, on bulbs at the lower base of the tentacles : foot squarish in front, with short angular corners, narrowing behind to a rounded and slightly bilobed tail : appendage single, placed far behind the tail, and issuing from the opercular lobe.
Shell oval, with a slight tendency to oblong and a somewhat oblique outline, rather solid, semitransparent and glossy : sculpture, numerous slight longitudinal ribs on the last three or four whorls, but not extending to the base ; they are flex- uous on the body-whorl and curved on the others ; the labial rib is strong, and placed close to the mouth ; the whole surface is covered with close-set and fine, apparently (but not really) undulating spiral stride, which are as prominent although not so large as the ribs, and by their intersection give a some- what muricated appearance ; these striae cross the labial rib, as in the preceding species, and reach to the outer lip ; the in- terstices of the striae on the base show, under a high magnifying power, indistinct traces of longitudinal ribs; the uppermost whorls are microscopically reticulated : colour clear-white, with occasionally a blotch of reddish-brown behind the labial rib : spire short and abrupt : whorls 5, somewhat compressed but rounded, the last occupying about two-thirds of the spire, and the first minute and flattened : suture deepish, and some- times slightly channelled : mouth roundish-oval, obliquely ex- panding outwards: outer lip narrow, thin, and sinuous, in- curved above : inner lip reflected on the pillar and at the base, united with the outer hp, but not forming a distinct peristome : operculum filmy, few-whorled, with a small excentric spire, and finely striated in the line of growth ; through it may be seen the opercular lobe, of a yellow colour. L. 0*085. B. 0-05.
Habitat : Mud in 50-70 f. , Loch Fyne (where M'An-
* Inhabiting deep water.
20 LITTORINID.E.
drew and Forbes discovered it), Skye and Hebrides (Barlee and J. G. J.), Shetland (Forbes and Barlee); and Mr.M'Andrew has dredged it also 15 miles south-west of Mizen Head, co. Cork. Norway (Mf Andrew) ; Bohuslan (Loven, as R. sculpt a of Philippi) ; off Vigo Bay and Malaga (M "Andrew) ; Gulf of Lyons (Martin, as R. scabra of Philippi) ; 40 miles off Malta in 350 f. (Spratt) . It is a local and somewhat rare species.
It floats like its congeners, and suspends itself in the water by a single byssal thread. Mediterranean spe- cimens are smaller than ours, and have rather stronger sculpture. Two different sizes occur, as is also probably the case with every other species of Rissoa. One of my specimens shows in the middle of the last whorl a dis- tinct varix, caused apparently by a new growth having taken place after the shell had arrived at maturity.
B. Ribbed lengthwise, and spirally striated ; outer lip thickened and reflected.
10. R. Zetlan'dica*, Montagu.
Turbo Zetlandidus, Mont, in Tr. Linn. Soc. xi. p. 194, t. xiii. f. 3. E. Zet- landica, F. & H. iii. p. 78, pi. lxxx. f. 1, 2.
Shell between oval and oblong, turreted or scalariform, solid, nearly opaque, glossy when living or fresh : sculpture, fine and rather sharp longitudinal ribs, of which there are 16 on the last whorl, 15 on the penultimate, 14 tm the next, and 13 on the succeeding whorl, where they usually disappear ; the ribs on the body-whorl do not extend quite to the base, but are cut off by a strong keel or ridge which winds spirally round that part from the upper corner of the mouth ; between this keel and the mouth is a deep groove or depression, which partly arises from the prominence of the keel, and is indistinctly ribbed across ; there is also a slighter and incomplete ridge (sometimes two) near the mouth, between the basal keel and the inner lip ; the labial rib is exceedingly thick and pro-
* Inhabiting the Shetland seas.
RISSOA.
21
minent ; its edge on the side of the mouth is furrowed or fur- nished with a double ridge, the inside one of which forms the outer lip ; the last four whorls are covered with spiral ridges equal in size and prominence to the longitudinal ribs, and in- tersecting them at a right angle, so as to produce a series of square excavations ; the points of intersection are muricated or spiky ; the last whorl has 4 of these ridges (besides that at the base), each of the next two whorls has 3, and the suc- ceeding whorl 2, the uppermost whorls being spirally and de- licately striated ; the ridges extend to the mouth : colour clear- white, sometimes golden -yellow, especially the basal ridge : spire rather short, abruptly pointed : ivhorls 6-7, convex, the last occupying three-fifths of the spire, the first minute and rounded : suture very deep and channelled : mouth roundish- oval, considerably expanding outwards : outer and inner lips forming a continuous and slightlv elevated rim. L. 0*125. B. 0-075.
Habitat : Sparingly found in the coralline and deep- sea zones, Guernsey (Barlee and others), Porth Curnow Cove, Cornwall (Miss Lavars), Hayle (Hockin), co. An- trim (Hyndman and J. G. J.), Lamlash, Bute (Lands- borough), Skye and Hebrides (J. G. J.), St. Fergus bay, Peterhead (Bingham, fide Brown) , Aberdeenshire (Daw- son), Caithness (Gordon), Orkneys (Thomas), Shetland (Fleming and others), at depths ranging from 18-70 f. Fossil in the Coralline Crag at Sutton (Wood), and in the miocene formation near Vienna (Homes) . Living on the coast of South Sweden, in 12-75 f. (Loven and Malm) , Cherbourg (Recluz), off Vigo Bay (Mf Andrew), Antibes (Mace), Nice (Verany), and Naples (Philippi).
With respect both to this and the next little shell, we may well say with Cicero, " Quid potest esse aspectu pulchrius ?"
The synonyms are R. cyclostornata of Recluz, R. ob- tusa of Brown, R. scalariformis of Metcalfe (Thorpe's 'British Marine Conchology }) , and R. clathrata of Philippi.
22 LITTORINID.E.
11. R. costa'ta^ Adams.
Turbo costatus, Ad. in Tr. Linn. Soc. iii. p. 65, t. 13. f. 13, 14. JR. costata, F. & H. iii. p. 92, pi. lxxviii. f. 6, 7.
Body clear-white : snout long, cloven vertically at the ex- tremity, and exposing the buccal disk, which is pale-red : ten- tacles slender, flattened, apparently not setose : eyes large : foot long, rounded in front, where it has a snow-white mark like the letter V, behind which it is constricted at the sides and divided across, thence somewhat expanding, and tapering to a blunt point behind ; the lower lip or edge of the foot in front extends much beyond the upper lip : opercular lobe dilated into rounded lateral wings : appendage single, distinct.
Shell oblong and slender, obliquely twisted, solid, nearly opaque, glossy when inhabiting clean ground, but usually lus- treless : sculpture, ridge-like, sharp, high-shouldered, and flex- uous longitudinal ribs, of which there are 9 on the last whorl, 10 on the penultimate, 11 on the next, and 12 on the suc- ceeding whorl, where they mostly disappear ; the ribs on the body- whorl do not extend quite to the base, being cut off by a strong (sometimes double) keel or ridge which winds spirally round that part ; between this keel and the mouth is a deep groove or depression caused by the prominence of the keel ; the labial rib is thicker than any of the rest, and its inside edge is flattened and finely notched ; the last four or five whorls are covered with numerous delicate spiral stria3, which cross the ribs ; the top whorls are quite smooth : colour clear- white, with a slight golden tinge : spire long and pointed : whorls 6, compressed, the last occupying three-fifths of the spire, and the first being minute and rounded : suture deep : mouth roundish- oval, expanding outwards : outer and inner lips sinuated, continuous, and forming a complete and slightly elevated rim round the mouth : operculum ear-shaped, thin, yellowish-horncolour, with a small excentric spire, and finely striated. L. 0-125. B. 0-06.
Habitat : Coralline and lower part of the laminarian zones j more generally distributed in the south than in the north. Dr. Gordon and Mr. Dawson find it on the coast of Aberdeenshire ; I have dredged it in the He-
* Ribbed.
RISSOA. 23
brides -, and Mr. Barlee sent me specimens from Shet- land. It is rather common in the Channel Isles, and occurs there at the base of seaweeds on the recess of high springtides. Fossil in Sussex (Godwin- Austen) , Largs in Ayrshire (Landsborough) , Palermo and Ta- rento (Philippi) . Its northern limits comprise Norway, Sweden, and Holland; and southwards it ranges along the shores of the North Atlantic as far as the Canaries (Mf Andrew), and of the Mediterranean on both sides : the depths given by different observers vary from 4-70 f.
Mr. Clark remarked the rapidity and freedom of its movements. In showing that it is a true Rissoa, he said " it is a very simple creature." This, of course, he meant in a zoological and not psychological sense. Spe- cimens from Teneriffe and Spezzia are uncommonly small.
It is the Turbo lacteus of Donovan — in index, " Turbo parvus (lacteus)" — T. crassus of Adams's work on the Microscope, T. plicatus of Miihlfeld, R. exigua of Michaud, and R. carinata of Philippi. R. costata of Desmarets is the R. variabilis of Miihlfeld, and very different from the present species.
C. Mostly ribbed lengthwise and spirally striated ; outer lip usually strengthened by a rib.
12. R. parva*, Da Costa.
Turbo parvus, Da Costa, Br. Conch, p. 104. E.parva, F. &H. iii. p. 98, pi. lxxvi. f. 2, 6, lxxvii. f. 6, 7, and lxxxii. f. 1-^4.
Body pale-yellowish-white, with a purplish blotch in the middle, and sometimes more or less tinged in other parts with the latter colour : pallial filament occasionally protruded : snout narrow and deeply cloven : tentacles whitish, extensile, some- what flattened, finely scalloped at the edges, and covered with minute cilia, which are not easily perceptible unless by using
* Little.
24 LITT0RINIDJ5.
a strong magnifying power : eyes on short stalks, occasionally nearly sessile : foot squarish or slightly rounded in front, con- tracted in the middle, where it is apparently divided across into two unequal portions (the front being about half the size of the other portion) ; it tapers behind to a blunt point ; sole speckled with frosted white, and finely slit from the centre down to the tail : opercular lobe large, dark-purple : appendage cylindrical, slender, rather long, and whitish, placed over the tail or hinder part of the foot, and now and then projecting beyond it ; it is microscopically ciliated, and resembles a small auxiliary tentacle.
Shell conic-oval, rather solid, nearly opaque, somewhat glossy: sculpture, strong and slightly curved ribs, like but- tresses, of which there are 8 on the body -whorl, and 12 on the penultimate and next whorl (the succeeding whorls having no ribs) ; the ribs do not extend to the base ; their interstices are frequently cancellated, and their termination on the lower part of the last whorl defined by more or less distinct spiral striae, arising from the intensity or concentration of micro- scopical lines which cover the whole surface in that direction ; the labial rib is thick and white, placed at a short distance behind the outer lip : colour mostly pale yellowish-white, some- times brown or chocolate, obscurely marked occasionally with rays between some of the ribs, and with a band round the base, always having a falciform streak from the suture behind the labial rib towards the middle of the outer lip ; the rays, band, and streak are chestnut-brown ; sometimes the ribs are white, the tip is pinkish, and the mouth is edged with chest- nut-brown : spire short, bluntly pointed : whorls 6-7, convex, the last occupying nearly two -thirds of the spire : suture rather slight, but distinct: mouth roundish- oval, somewhat expanded : outer lip thin, contracted and incurved above: inner lip reflected on the pillar and at the base, where there is no appearance of an umbilical crevice : operculum thin, whitish, with a small excentric spire, and delicately striated. L. 0-165. B. 0-1.
Var. 1. interrupta. Smaller, slenderer, thinner, semitranspa- rent, and ribless, with much less convex whorls, usually marked with longitudinal rays of chestnut-colour, which are curved on the body-whorl, or divided into two rows, so as to make the mid- dle appear girdled with a whitish band ; occasionally these rays become confluent and form dark bands ; labial rib slighter ; the spiral striae are sometimes distinct, although irregular. Turbo interruptus, Adams in Tr. Linn. Soc. v. p. 3, t. i. f. 16, 17.
RISSOA. 25
Yar. 2. eoc&is. Dwarf, very slender, thin and smooth, tawny, without any conspicuous markings ; labial rib wanting or ru- dimentary.
Habitat : Swarming on seaweeds and Zostera at low- water mark and throughout the laminarian zone. Ac- cording to Alder a variety has been taken among coral- lines from 20 f. The typical form is more common in the south, and the variety interrupt a in the north ; both live together, as well as every conceivable gradation as regards shape, size, solidity, sculpture, and colour. Some are full-ribbed, some half- ribbed, and some have only the traces of ribs on one or other of the larger whorls; but the top whorls are invariably smooth. The 2nd variety was found by me in Lerwick Sound. Sars has recorded the typical form as fossil in the post- glacial beds of Norway, at heights between 40 and 200 feet ; and the variety mterrupta has occurred in upper tertiary deposits in Ireland (Brown) , Fort William (J. G. J.), Dalmuir and Clyde beds (Crosskey and others), Uddevalla (J. G. J.), Christiania district, in the newer or post-glacial strata, at 100 feet (Sars), Nice (Risso) . The foreign distribution of this species and its principal variety comprises the coasts of Upper and Lower Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Dalmatia, Greece, Algeria, and the Canarv Isles, from the shore to 40 f. In the ( Zoolo- gical Record ' for 1864, von Martens questions the R. ob- scvra of Philippi (which is the typical form of this species) being Mediterranean, because he had not found it there. It is not uncommon at Spezzia.
Lying on a rock by the brink of a seaweed- covered pool left by the receding tide, it is no less pleasant than curious to watch this active little creature gro through its different exercises — creeping, floating, and spinning.
vol. iv. c
26 LITTORINID^.
It has evidently no fear of man or fish, being fortunately unconscious that the conchologist and the blenny are its natural enemies. Its heart, however, beats fast in confinement, giving about 60 pulsations per minute. Clark informs us that " the branchial plume consists of 15-18 minute vessels attached under and to the mantle and back of the neck ; " and according to Mr. Alder the teeth are arranged in 40 or 50 rows. The spawn-capsules are semicircular, yellowish-brown, and sometimes depo- sited on the shells of other individuals. Specimens from the Hebrides and Shetland are much larger than usual, but of a paler hue. The one noticed and figured in the 1 British Mollusca ' as R. Sarsii is an extraordinarilv fine example of the variety interrupta, and not LoveVs species of that name ; it is a quarter of an inch long. Mediterranean specimens are very inferior in size to those of our coasts. Mr. Williams Hockin has noticed that now and then the ribs are slightly furrowed down the middle. This species may always be known from any of its allies by a character which Forbes and Hanley pointed out, viz. the falciform streak outside the mouth. To give all the old synonyms (including those of Adams) would be unnecessary. The modern ones are Cingula alba, Fleming, R.pulchella, Forbes, R. tristriata, Macgillivray, R. fuscata and R. discrepans, Brown, R. obscura and R. simplex, Philippi, R. Matoniana, Recluz, Sabanaea paucicostata and Persephona Scotica, Leach, and R. cerasina, Brusina. Perhaps R. lineolata and R. marginata of Michaud may be added to the list.
13. B. inconspi'cua*, Alder.
B. inconspicua, Aid. in Ann. & Mag. N. H. xiii. p. 32.3, pi. viii. f. 6, 7 : F. & H. iii. p. 113, pi. Ixxvi. f. 7, 8, and lxxxii. f. 5, 6.
Body white, with blotches of yellow ; it is also marked length -
* Not remarkable.
RISSOA. 27
wise with two lines of dark-purple or black, the upper one being on the side of the back, and the lower bordering the foot: pallial JUament pendent: snout short, wedge-like, and bilobed, tinged with muddy yellow or orange : tentacles very long and slender, hairy : eyes black, on minute yellow prominences : foot narrow and extensile, slightly labiated in front, bluntly pointed behind; sole depressed in the centre, from which a line runs to the tail : opercular lobe expanded beyond each side of the foot, and margined with deep-purple or black, forming with the lines on the upper surface a dark blotch : appendage very long and distinct, projecting above the tail. (Alder and Clark.) '
Shell conic-oval, moderately solid, semitransparent, highly glossy, and sometimes having a prismatic lustre : sculpture, usually numerous fine stria-like and curved longitudinal ribs on all except the topmost whorls ; these ribs are unequally dis- tributed, and occasionally are fewer and stronger on the body- whorl; labial rib thick and white in adult specimens, now and then forming a varix in the middle of the last whorl ; the surface is also more or less distinctly impressed by delicate spiral striae, especially about the periphery ; the uppermost whorls are quite smooth : colour pale yellowish -white or whitish, rarely milk-white, sometimes variegated by obscure spots or short streaks of reddish-brown ; tip of the spire pink : spire mostly short and acute : ivhorls 6—7, somewhat convex, but not tumid ; the last occupies about three-fifths of the spire : suture well defined, although not deep : mouth roundish-oval : outer lip thin, contracted at the upper corner : inner lip thick- ened and slightly reflected at the base, where there is a small umbilical crevice : operculum resembling that of the next species, except that this is fawncolour. L. O085. B. 0*05.
Yar. 1. ventrosa. Thinner, with the whorls more swollen, but having the peculiar sculpture and other characters of this species.
Yar. 2. variegata. Much smaller, more conical, with an an- gular periphery, smooth or having a few ribs only, with flatter whorls and distinct broad tawny longitudinal streaks or rays ; there is no umbilical cleft. R. variegata, v. Mohrenstern, Pass. p. 28, t. ii. f. 15.
Monstr. Slightly scalariform, the last whorl being partly detached from the preceding one,
c2
28 LITTORINID.E.
Habitat : Coralline zone everywhere ; especially com- mon in trawl- refuse at Plymouth. The 1st variety was dredged by Mr. Barlee at Exmouth and in the Hebrides, and by myself in the estuarine river Roach in Essex ; the 2nd, although widely distributed, seems more to frequent the Dorset coast ; and the monstrosity is from the west of Scotland (Barlee) and Aberdeenshire (Daw- son) . Mr. Robertson has found this species in a post- tertiary deposit at Crinan ; the late Dr. Woodward enu- merated it as a fossil of the Norwich Crag ; and Profes- sor Sars records it from a post-glacial bed in Norway, at a height of 50 feet. It inhabits the Norwegian coast as far north as Oxfjord in the laminarian zone (Sars), Christianiafiord (J. G. J.), the south of Sweden (Malm), the Cattegat (mus. Copenhagen), north of France (Mace, Cailliaud, and Tasle), Gulf of Lyons (Martin, fide Petit), Dalmatia (Brusina), Spezzia (J. G. J.), Corsica (Susini), and Algeria (Weinkauff ) . A species very closely allied to this, if not a dwarf or southern variety of it, was obtained by Mr. M'Andrew off Teneriffe.
This may have been the Turbo albus of Adams ( T. albulus of Maton and Rackett, not of Fabricius), R. B allies of Thompson, and R. maculaia of Brown j but the specific name inconspicua is in general use, and must be retained. I regard the 2nd variety as a stunted form. If I had contented myself with examining a few speci- mens only, I should probably have arrived at the same conclusion that Herr v. Mohrenstern did, and made this variety a separate species j but the comparison on an extensive scale of both forms and of intermediate specimens has convinced me that such a distinction can- not be maintained. The shell described — or rather sha- dowed forth — by Adams as Helix variegata may not even have belonged to the present genus. All the species
RISSOA. 29
of Rissoa which can be safely identified with his descrip- tions or figures were placed by him in the genus Turbo.
14. R. albel'la"*, Loven.
E. crfbeUa, Lov. Ind. Moll. Scand. p. 25. R. inconspicua, var. tenuis, F. & H. iii. p. 115, pi. lxxxiii. f. 7, 8.
Body yellowish- white, with a purplish blotch in the middle : pallial process single, issuing from the upper angle of the mouth of the shell : snout rather short, deeply cloven lengthwise, not extending as far as the foot : tentacles cylindrical, with blunt tips, usually spotted with yellow or opaque-white, and finely setose : eyes on very small tubercles : foot truncated (occasion- ally somewhat bilobed) in front, constricted near the middle, and pointed behind ; sole slightly grooved in the centre of the posterior half: appendage single, leaf- like, flat and large.
Shell conic-oval, thin, semitransparent, and glossy ; sculp- ture, usually a few minute slight spiral striae, but sometimes also rather sharp and curved longitudinal ribs, of which there are from 12 to 15 on the penultimate whorl ; these ribs never cover the uppermost whorls, nor extend to the mouth, and now and then they appear on the middle whorls only ; between the labial rib (which rarely occurs on smooth specimens) and the outer lip there is a greater or less space left, so as sometimes to give this rib the aspect of a varix : colour yellowish-white of different shades, often variegated by longitudinal reddish- brown or tawny streaks, which are straight and rather nume- rous on the upper whorls, and more or less flexuous on the body-whorl ; the base is occasionally marked with a broad but indistinct tawny band ; some specimens are of a bright bronze hue : spire varying in length, sharp-pointed : whorls 6-7, tu- mid, gradually increasing in size ; the last occupies about three-fifths of the spire : suture remarkably deep : mouth oval or roundish-oval, not expanding: outer Up very thin, contracted and incurved at the upper corner: inner lip somewhat thickened, and reflected, especially over the base, where a small umbilical crevice is formed : operculum slightly concave, horncolour, with a short spire, and rather strongly striated. L. 0-15. B. 0-075.
Var. Sarsii. Thinner, smooth, and seldom having the labial rib. R. Sarsii, Lov. I. c. p. 15.
* For albula. whitish.
30 LITTORINID^E.
Monstr. Body-whorl spirally and finely but irregularly ridged, the outer lip now and then expanded or contracted above, or a notch formed close to the suture.
Habitat : Bantry Bay at low water (Barlee) . The variety is tolerably common on Zoster a at Southampton, and abundant among seaweeds in the west of Scotland and east of Shetland, associated with R. parva var. in- terrupta. The monstrosity is sometimes met with in the latter district. The typical form inhabits Bohuslan (Loven), Kiel Bay (Meyer and Mobius) and Christiania- fiord (J. G. J.) ; the variety was found by Professor Sars at Bergen.
My largest specimens are those from Southampton and Loch Carron, some of them measuring 2 lines in length. A dwarf form, which is much less numerous, may be the male. The spawn-cases are generally solitary, semiglobular, membranous, and light-yellowish-brown ; the fry emerge from a large round hole at the top, which appears when they are developed.
Mr. Alder was quite right in considering this distinct from R. inconspicua ; but the name [tenuis] which he proposed, being unaccompanied by a published descrip- tion, must cede to one of these which Loven has given. It is thinner and considerably larger than R. incon- spicua, the whorls are more ventricose, the suture is much deeper, and the sculpture very different. It is possible that the present species may have been the R. similis of Brown, which was found by the Bev. William Molesworth at Padstow.
15. R. membrana'cea *, Adams.
Turbo membranaeeus, Ad. in Tr. Linn. Soc. v. p. 2, t. i. f. 12, 13. B. 1a- biosa, F. & H. iii. p. 109, pi. lxxvi. f. 5, lxxvii. f. 1-3, and lxxxi. f. 3.
Body pale-yellow, or slightly tinged with brown : tentacles
* Membranous.
RISSOA. 31
subulate, white : eyes surrounded by white spaces : foot squarish in front and pointed behind ; the central or contracted part of the sides is dark-purple : opercular lobe of the same hue, and well developed : appendage conspicuous and white. (Forbes and Hanley.)
Shell conic-oblong, with an oblique outline, varying in solidity according to the nature of the habitat, semitransparent, and more or less glossy : sculpture, usually strong, prominent, somewhat curved or nexuous longitudinal ribs, from 15 to 18 of which are on the penultimate whorl ; those on the last whorl extend only halfway down, and almost disappear to- wards the mouth; the upper three whorls are perfectly smooth ; the rest of the surface is covered with numerous extremely minute and delicate transverse or spiral striae, some of which on the lower part of the body-whorl are raised and form slight obsolete ridges ; these striae are never punctured or cancellated as in R. violacea and R. costulata ; the labial rib is remarkably thick, broad and white : colour whitish, with sometimes a tinge of yellow or light-brown ; the mouth is occasionally of a violet hue or edged with purplish-brown ; now and then specimens occur which are light-horncolour and marked with reddish- brown, occasionally zigzag, streaks or blotches ; the apex of dark-coloured specimens is pale-violet: spire rather short, ter- minating in a sharp point : whorls 7, somewhat compressed ; the last occupies about two-thirds of the spire ; this is exceed- ingly large in proportion to the next, and considerably dilated : suture rather slight : mouth oval, widely expanding outwards : outer lip thin : inner Up very broad, reflected on the pillar and over the base (in some cases to such an extent as to form an umbilical chink) ; the angle incident on the junction of the two lips is a right one : pillar furnished near its base with a strong tooth-like projection or fold : operculum homcolour, with a very small spire, and strongly striated. L. 0*3. B. 0*125.
Var. 1. minor. Much smaller, and smooth.
Yar. 2. venusta. More solid, with a shorter spire and stronger ribs. R. venusta, -Philippi, Moll. Sic. ii. p. 124, t. xxiii. f. 4.
Yar. 3. elata. Body light-grey, with small white specks, mottled with brown in front : snout short and thick, bilobed at the extremity : tentacles thread-shaped and slender, setose : eyes on swellings of the tentacles at their outer base : foot rounded and double-edged in front, with angular corners, bluntly pointed behind ; sole of a paler hue than the rest of the body, closely dappled with white, and having in the centre
32 LITTORINID^:.
a short internal process (analogous to the byssiferous stylet of Mytilus?), which lies in a slanting direction with the outer point towards the tail : opercular lobe of the same colour as the sole : appendage whitish and conspicuous. Shell thinner, with a longer spire, often smaller, and usually ribless. E. data, Phil. I. c. t. xxiii. f. 3.
Habitat : Zostera and seaweeds, from low tide-mark to a few fathoms, on nearly every part of our coasts ; although it is rather local. The 1st variety occurs at Tenby and in Dublin Bay, the 2nd was found at Poole by Mr. Barlee, and the 3rd frequents estuaries and brackish water. The typical form is fossil at Belfast (Grainger) ; Bute (Smith) ; Uddevalla (Malm) ; post- glacial beds in Norway, 50-150 feet (Sars) ; and Sicily (Philippi, as R. ventricosa) . Its foreign range in a living state extends from Norway, where it is very large (Loven and others) , to Malaga (Mf Andrew), Dalmatia (Brusina), Corfu (Hanley, as R. elata), Black Sea (Middendorff, as R. oblong a and R. elata), Algeria (M 'Andrew and Weinkauff), and Canary Isles (v.Mohrenstern), at depths varying from low-water to 35 f. Philippics specimens of his R. venusta were Venetian.
The animal occasionally floats, or suspends itself by a viscous thread. The shell varies greatly in size, thick- ness, and length of spire ; but it may always be known from R. violacea and R. costulata by its wide mouth, plain and scarcely perceptible transverse striae, and the tooth or fold on the pillar.
The synonyms are inconveniently numerous. Some of them are (either certainly or probably) Turbo costatus, Pulteney, T. labiosus, Montagu, R. oblonga, R. ventri- cosa, and R. hyalina, Desmarets, R. grossa and R.fragilis, Midland, R. turricula and R. pulla, Brown, and R. Sou- ley etiana, Recluz. R. cornea of Loven may be also a local variety.
RISSOA. 33
16. R. viola'cea*, Desmarets.
B. violacea, Desra. in Bull. sc. soc. phil. Paris, p. 8, pi. i. f. 7. JR. ri'.fi- labrum, F. & H. iii. p. 10(3, pi. lxxvii. f. 8, 9.
Body orange-white, striped in front with purplish-brown : mantle not exhibiting any process : tentacles slender, setose, marked lengthwise with an orange line : eyes conspicuous on bulbs at the outer base of the tentacles: foot rounded and double- edged in front ; sole constricted in the middle to such an ex- tent that the front part of the foot appears to issue from the hinder part, as if out of a sheath, and it is finely grooved lengthwise towards the tail : appendage single, short, and conical ; it proceeds from the hinder edge of that lobe of the mantle which forms the operculum.
Shell conic-oval inclining to oblong, solid, nearly opaque, rather glossy : sculpture, usually strong, prominent, and slightly curved longitudinal ribs, about 15 of which are on the penul- timate whorl, those on the last whorl being present only on the under side ; there are none on the upper whorls, which are quite smooth ; near the mouth is a very large and broad labial rib or callus ; the interstices of the ordinary ribs and the rib- less part of the last whorl are covered with numerous rows of fine transverse striae", which are regularly and closely punc- tured : colour whitish, frequently tinged with yellow, reddish- brown, violet, or purple ; some specimens are marked length- wise by reddish-brown streaks, especially on the upper part ; the tip is usually orange ; the outside edge of the labial rib is mostly tawny, and the inside of the lip violet : spire short, more or less abruptly tapering to a fine point : whorls 7, rather tumid ; the last occupies nearly three-fifths of the spire, and is somewhat compressed and dilated towards the mouth i suture slight, overlapping the preceding whorl : mouth roundish-oval, wide, and slightly expanding in every direction : outer lip thin : inner lip broad, reflected on the pillar and towards the base : operculum horncolour, thin, composed of three rapidly increas- ing volutions, and marked with very fine and close flexuous striee in the line of growth. L. 0-2. B. 0*1.
Yar. 1. ecostata. Destitute of the ordinary ribs.
V"ar. 2. porifera. Body yellowish and stained with dark- purple on the upper side, whitish on the under side : mantle
* Violet-coloured.
c o
34 LITT0RINID.E.
fringed with fine and short cilia, and furnished at the left hand or upper corner with a long but slight filamental process : snout comparatively large, bilobed: tentacles cylindrical, long and slender, strawcolour with a yellowish-brown streak down the middle of each, thinly clothed with fine and short hairs re- sembling those on the border of the mantle : eyes on small off- sets : foot divided into two parts ; the front part is transversely oblong, and the hinder part is triangular, or shaped like a spear-head, and ends in a blunt point ; the line of division is margined by a purple border : appendage long. Shell thinner, ribless, and horn colour, with a much shorter spire. R. porifera, Loven, Ind. Moll. Scand. p. 24.
Habitat : Laminarian zone, in Guernsey, Hants, Sussex, Dorset, and Devon; Barmouth (J. G. J.); Bantry (Barlee) ; Connemara (Farran and others) ; Belfast (Thompson and Hyndman) ; Lough Strangford, 7-20 f. (Dickie) ; west coast of Scotland, and Shetland (Barlee and J. G. J.). The 1st variety inhabits the last two districts, and the 2nd the West Voe at the Whalsey Skerries in east Shetland. " Subfossile," Nice (Bisso) ; post-glacial bed in Norway, 50 feet (Sars). Living from Finmark to the Cattegat, in 1-40 f., as R. rufila- brum and R. porifera; north of France to Vigo, the Mediterranean, Adriatic, and iEgean, in 7-25 f., as R. violacea; Yillafranca (Hanley), as R. rufilabrum.
The animal of the variety porifera twirls about rest- lessly at intervals, using its foot as a pivot ; the male is not half as large as the female. The shell of the ordinary form varies extremely in size, as well as in the length and sharpness of the spire. Mediterranean specimens are more narrow and slender, and their colour is much brighter, presenting the same analogy that exists between southern and northern specimens of R. costulata. That species differs from the present in having a longer and more tapering spire, a smaller base and contracted
RISSOA. 35
mouth, aud in the striae being cancellated instead of punctured.
This is probably the R. Guerinii of Recluz. The same author also described it as R. lilacina, Delle Chiaje as Turbo Rissoanus, Chiereghini as T. Mavors, Renier as T. amethystinus, and Potiez and Michaud as R. punctata.
17. R. costula'ta *, Alder.
B. costtdata, Aid. in Ann. & Mag. N. H. xiii. p. 324, pi. yin. f. 8, 9 ; F. & H. iii. p. 103, pi. lxxvii. f. 4, 5.
Body yellowish, tinged with brown in front : snout rather long, wrinkled, and cloven at its extremity : tentacles thread- shaped, slender, retractile, finely setose, sulphur-coloured, with a greenish hue or vein down the middle of each : eyes on small bulgings of the tentacles, at their outer bases : foot rounded in front, divided across in the middle, so as to make the anterior and posterior portions appear separate, bluntly pointed behind; posterior half of the sole grooved lengthwise ; appendage white, retractile.
Shell conic-oblong, somewhat spindle-shaped in consequence of the apex being pointed and the base narrower than the middle, rather solid, nearly opaque, more or less glossy ; sculp- ture, strong, prominent, and nearly straight longitudinal ribs, 10 of which are on the penultimate whorl, those on the last whorl usually disappearing towards the mouth ; there are none on the upper three or four whorls, which are quite smooth ; near the mouth is a rib, much larger and broader than any of the rest ; the ribs on each whorl are either continuous or arranged alternately, so as to appear dovetailed; the spaces between the ribs and the space near the mouth are covered with fine and rather numerous transverse or spiral striae, the interstices of which are delicately and closely cancellated, es- pecially at the base of the shell : colour pale-yellowish or dirty white, often tinged with lilac, or streaked lengthwise with reddish -brown, sometimes pure- white; the ribs are mostly of a lighter hue -or whitish, and are therefore conspicuous ; the inside edge of the mouth is nearly always lilac or reddish-brown; occasionally the whole surface, except the labial rib, is orna- mented by longitudinal zigzag streaks of reddish-brown, and
* Slightly ribbed.
36 littorinidjE.
the ribs are encircled by a white line ; the tip in worn speci- mens is frequently purplish : spire abruptly tapering to a fine point : whorls 8, convex, the lower two being equal in breadth, and the penultimate sometimes even slightly broader than the last ; the upper whorls rapidly diminish in size ; and those forming the point of the spire are disproportionately small and flattened : suture rather deep : mouth roundish-oval, con- tracted and incurved above, slightly expanding at the sides and below : outer lip thin beyond the large rib or callus which strengthens the mouth : inner Up considerably reflected on the pillar and towards the base : operculum pale-horncolour, of three rapidly increasing volutions, and finely striated. L. 0*2. B. 0-075.
Habitat : Codium tomentosum and other small sea- weeds at low-water, in the Channel Isles and on the coasts of Dorset and Devon ; also at Hyde (Hanley) • Worthing (Rich) ; Manorbeer in Pembrokeshire, and Cork (J. G. J.) ; Scarborough (Bean) ; Lamlash (Lands- borough). Probably the last locality, and certainly Connemara (given by Forbes and Hanley on the late Mr. Thompson's authority), appertains to R. violacea, instead of to the present species. R. costulata inhabits the northern and western coasts of France (Mace and others), Gijon, Corunna, and Vigo (M' Andrew), and both sides of the Mediterranean. Specimens from that sea are smaller and more slender than those from the North Atlantic. There are two sizes everywhere, appa- rently representing a difference of sex.
I found a living specimen at Lulworth which had the lower half broken off and a new mouth formed among the ruins.
It is not R. costulata of Risso (which is R. costata, Desmarets, and R. variabilis, v. Muhlfeld) , nor R. costu- lata of Searles Wood, from the Coralline Crag. Leach called the present species Persephona Goodallana and P. rufilabris, judging from his description of the former,
RISSOA. 37
and from typical specimens of the latter in the British Museum. It is also the R. subcostulata of v. Mohren- stern. I regard R. similis of Scacchi as a small variety.
18. R. stria'ta*, Adams.
Turbo striatus, Ad. in Tr. Linn. Soc. iii. p. 6G, 1. 13. f. 25, 26. R. striata, F. & H. iii. p. 94, pi. lxxviii. f. 8, 9.
Body white, with a tinge of yellow : pallial filament nearly hyaline, and pendent : snout rather long and narrow : tentacles cylindrical, very finely and closely ciliated : eyes black, almost sessile : foot narrow, truncated in front and slightly auricled, contracted in the middle, and tapering behind to a round point : appendage short, white, and pointed.
Shell oblong, inclining to cylindrical, rather solid, nearly opaque, and usually lustreless : sculpture, numerous thread- like spiral striae, of which there are about 20 on the body-whorl; frequently the upper part of each of the three next whorls (and occasionally also the body-whorl) has a few longitudinal slightly flexuous 'ribs, that reach only about halfway down and are crossed by the spiral striae ; the two uppermost whorls are quite smooth and glossy : colour white or various shades of yellow, with sometimes two indistinct but broad reddish- brown bands round the middle of the last whorl, which do not extend to the mouth : spire elongated, with a blunt point : ivhorls 6, somewhat compressed, gradually enlarging, the last two being nearly equal in breadth, and the largest occupying about three-fifths of the spire : suture very distinct and rather deep : mouth proportionally small, having a somewhat flexuous out- line : outer lip thin, mostly strengthened outside by a thick rib : inner lip reflected, and forming with the other lip a com- plete peristome : operculum transparent, and delicately stri- ated. L. 0-125. E. 0-05.
Yar. arctica. Without longitudinal ribs or coloured bands. R. arctica, Loven, Ind. Moll. Scand. p. 24.
Habitat : All our coasts, under stones and at the base of seaweeds on the recess of spring tides ; living in clusters. It inhabits also the laminarian and coralline zones ; and I have dredged it in upwards of 80 fathoms.
* Striated.
38 littorinidjE.
The variety is more peculiar to the north, although oc- curring everywhere with the typical form. As an upper tertiary fossil this variety has been noticed in Ireland (Brown), Clyde beds (Crosskey), Fort William (Bed- ford and J. G. J.), post-glacial deposits in Norway, 130 feet, and glacial shell-banks in Aremark, Norway, 280-460 feet (Sars), and Coralline Crag (S. Wood). Its foreign range comprises Spitzbergen (Torell), Green- land (Moller), Sea of Okhotsk and coast of Russian Lapland (Middendorff), Iceland (Steenstrup), and Scan- dinavia (Loven and others), 0-50 f., where the ty- pical form also occurs : this last ranges from Heligo- land (Philip pi) to Corunna and Vigo (Mf Andrew) , and thence to the Gulf of Lyons (Martin) and the iEgean in 20 f. (Forbes). M 'Andrew found a dwarf variety at Teneriffe. The variety arctic a (under the specific name aculeus, given to it by Professor Stimpson) inhabits the northern sea-board of the United States.
This little creature is by no means shy or sluggish. It probably feeds on decayed seaweeds. Females are the better halves in point of size. Some specimens are slender, some ventricose, some of thin texture and deli- cately striated, others are distorted by being twisted on one side in the most lackadaisical fashion. Those from deep water are much smaller than littoral specimens.
Synonyms : — R. minutissima, Michaud, R. communis, Forbes, R. gracilis, Macgillivray, R. decussata, Pyramis candidus, and P. discors, Brown, and R. pedicularis, Menke. The young is the Turbo semicostatus of Mon- tagu and Odostomia Mariona of Macgillivray, and the variety is the R. saxatilis of Moller. Philippi considered a species which he described in the ' Zeitschrift fur Ma- lakozoologie ' for 1849 as R. delicata (from the Red Sea) to be a tropical variety of our R. striata.
RISSOA. 39
D. Spirally striated, or smooth; outer lip plain. 19. R. prox'ima* Alder.
E. proximo, (Alder), F. & H. iii. p. 127, pi. lxxv. f. 7, 8.
Body brilliant and almost clear white, dotted with minute opaque-white flakes : mantle even, and (as well as the next species, R. vitrea) not exhibiting the usual filamental process : snout somewhat cylindrical and extensile, quite smooth and rounded at its extremity, where it forms a rose-like disk ; when fully extended it is blotched at the sides and on the tip with claret-red : tentacles rather short, flat, strong, tapering, and minutely bulbous at the tips, each of which is clothed with six comparatively long and fine needle-shaped hairs : eyes re- markably large, black, and placed on miuute and nearly semicircular lateral excrescences at the outer bases of the ten- tacles, which are so amalgamated with them as scarcely to present any prominence : foot large, fleshy, grooved and slightly labiated in front, with a deep notch or indentation, and ex- panded into large, long, arched, and pointed auricles ; it is divided behind into two long distinct and diverging tails or streamers : opercular lobe close to the point of such bifurcation, and destitute of a caudal cirrus. (Clark.)
Shell closely resembling the next species (JR. vitrea) in shape and size ; but it is never lustrous ; and when examined with even a low magnifying power, instead of being smooth it is seen to be encircled by numerous distinct and rather spiral striae ; the colour is snow-white beneath a pale-yellowish epidermis ; the spire tapers more gradually, and has a some- what abruptly truncated apex ; the whorls are compact, and not loosely coiled ; the inner lip is more closely attached to the pillar ; and the operculum is white, formed of 4 or 5 volu- tions, and marked with delicate striae in the line of growth.
Habitat : Exmouth, eight miles from shore, in 15 f., on a bottom of shells and mud (Clark) ; Torbay and Plymouth, in 15-20 f., with R. vitrea (J. G. J.) ; Fal- mouth (Barlee) ; Helford (Hockin) ; Cork, Bantry, and Dublin (J. G. J. and others). Mr. Searles Wood has lately found two specimens in the Coralline Crag at
* The nearest, i. e. to R. vitrea.
40 LITTORINID.E.
Sutton. Its foreign known or supposed distribution is southern and limited, as follows : — Gulf of Lyons (Mar- tin); Spezzia (Doria and J. G. J.); Ajaccio (Requien); Naples (Tiberi); Teneriffe (Mf Andrew).
R. proximo, appears to be a rare as well as " critical ;' species. Besides its affinity to R. vitrea, it is nearly related to the variety arctica of R. striata. In the last- named species, however, the texture and sculpture of the shell are coarser, the spire is pointed and not trun- cated, and the suture is less deep and not so oblique. The present species may be distinguished from R. vitrea by its being striated and never glossy. May one be the male and the other the female of the same species ?
It is probably the R. pupoides of Requien. I de- scribed it about twenty years ago in the ' Annals of Natural History ' as R. striatula, not remembering that the name had been preengaged for a supposed Linnean species.
20. R. vi'trea*, Montagu.
Turbo vitreus, Mont. Test. Br. p. 321, t. 12. f. 3. B. vitrea, F. & H. iii. p. 125, pi. lxxv. f. 5, 6.
Body white, and appearing as if veined, with a frosty hue : snout short, cloven at the extremity, fleshcolour: tentacles thread- shaped, long and compressed, setose at the tips only, and ser- rated at the outer bases: eyes conspicuous, placed on small bulbs or eminences : foot double-edged in front and indented so deeply as to form two distinct broad lobes, rounded behind : no appendage observable.
Shell nearly cylindrical, thin, semitransparent, and of a glassy lustre : sculpture none, examined with a hand-lens ; but under the microscope or even a Coddington lens the sur- face exhibits extremely fine regular and close-set spiral striae : colour of live or fresh specimens pale yellowish-white, which soon becomes bleached by exposure to the air : spire elongated and slender, ending rather abruptly in an obtuse point : whorls
* Glassy.
RISSOA. 41
6, convex, loosely and obliquely coiled, the last three being nearly eqnal in breadth, and the first minute ; the body-whorl occupies nearly two-thirds of the spire : suture remarkably deep : mouth exactly oval, small, and slightly expanding : outer lip thin, contracted, and incurved above : inner lip somewhat reflected, and more or less detached from the pillar : operculum few-whorled, light-horncolour, with the spire placed excen- trically. L. 0-135. B. 0-05.
Habitat : Mud in the coralline zone, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Bristol and English Channels ; Northumber- land coast (Alder) ; south and west of Ireland and Dub- lin Bay; Dunbar (Bingham, fide Brown) ; Moray Firth (Macgillivray and Macdonald) ; west coast of Scotland (Barlee and J. G. J.) ; Orkneys (Thomas) ; and Bressay in Shetland (Fleming) . It is local and somewhat rare. Fossil in the Coralline Crag at Sutton (Wood). Pro- fessor Sars has dredged it of a very large size off Floroen in Finmark; Malm obtained forty-five specimens, of which several were living, in 20-30 f. on the Bohuslan coast ; La Hogue Bay near Cherbourg (Mace) ; Vigo (M 'Andrew) ; Gulf of Lyons, in the stomach of As- tropecten irregularis, with R. proximo, (Martin) ; Spezzia (J. G. J.).
Very active, and suspends itself by a single byssal thread, keeping the mouth of the shell closed by the operculum.
Captain Brown made of this species three, which he called vitrea, crystallina, and virginea. A shell kindly given me by M. Nyst, from the Belgian tertiaries, as R. vitrea, is twice as large as our shell ; it has an angu- lated periphery, a shallower and straight suture, fewer though more conspicuous spiral striae, and an acute- angled outer lip, the inner lip being closely attached throughout to the pillar.
42 LITTORINID.E.
21. R. pulcher'rima"*, Jeffreys.
B. pulcherrima, Jeffr. in Ann. & Mag. N. H. ser. 2. ii. p. 351 ; F. & H. iii. p. 129, pi. lxxv. f. 1, 2.
Body whitish, with yellow specks : snout convex, projecting beyond the foot, and bilobed at the extremity : tentacles rather short, thickly and exquisitely setose, with rounded tips : eyes large : foot slender, rounded in front, divided across in the middle by a fine line (as in many other species of Rissoa), and bluntly pointed behind ; sole slightly grooved down the middle on its posterior half: opercular lobe margined on each side with dark purplish-brown : appendage very long and pointed.
Shell conical with a broad and dilated base, thin, semi- transparent, and glossy : sculpture none : colour whitish, pret- tily variegated by 4 rows of reddish-brown spots on the body- whorl, the spots in the upper two and lower two rows (or in the upper two only) being sometimes confluent and forming short longitudinal streaks ; the penultimate whorl has 2 or 3 rows, and the next 1 row : spire short, ending in a remark- ably obtuse and mammiform point : whorls 4, ventricose ; the last equals three-fourths of the spire, and expands considerably towards the mouth : suture very deep : mouth nearly round : outer lip thin : inner lip reflected on the pillar, behind which is a small but distinct perforation : operculum thin, impressed with a few strong diverging lines ; the nucleus of the spire is rather more central than in any of the preceding species, and resembles that of a Littorina. L. 0-075. B. 0-05.
Habitat : Among small seaweeds and on Zostera at low-water in all the Channel Isles ; not uncommon. Some years ago, at Exmoutlr, after washing a quantity of Corallina officinalis which I had collected on that coast, I found two or three specimens of R. pulcherrima, and I was at first delighted at having discovered a new habitat; but I have since recollected that Mr. Barlee lent me for the examination sieves which he had last used in Guernsey. Such trifling accidents may cause great confusion in our ideas of geographical distribution. I have taken this pretty shell at Sestri di Levante ; and
* Very beautiful.
RISSOA. 43
I observed it in the collections of MM. Susini from Corsica and of M. Mace at Cannes.
It is exceedingly agile both in creeping and swimming, and spins a delicate thread of attachment. Mr. Clark states that this species (i is a dwarf, nearly ribless R. inconspicua.,} The latter, however, has a much narrower base, the spire is more tapering and sharp-pointed, and the outer lip is furnished with a rib ; and the shell is never so thin in proportion to its size, and is invariably sculptured. I have carefully compared the young and adult of each species, in order to satisfy myself as to their distinctness. Truncatella fusca of Philippi is allied to the present species.
22. R. ful'gida*, Adams.
Helix ful gidus, Ad. in Tr. Linn. Soc. iii. p. 254? R. fulgida, F. & H. iii. p. 128, pi. lxxxi. f. 1, 2.
Body whitish, with more or less of a yellow hue, and micro- scopically suffused with flake-white points : mantle not exhi- biting any filament : snout short, bifid at the point : tentacles cylindrical but somewhat compressed, rather short, sparingly and minutely setose : eyes large in proportion, on small pro- tuberances of the tentacles, at their outer bases : foot flexible, usually rounded in front and bluntly pointed behind; sole grooved lengthwise down the middle on the posterior half. Neither Mr. Clark nor myself could detect any distinct oper- cular cirrus or appendage — although he says, " in some speci- mens I have fancied I saw a very short blunt one."
Shell conic-oval, inclining to globular, rather thin, semi- transparent, and glossy : sculpture none, even under the micro- scope : colour pale yellow or creamy, with two reddish-brown bands on the body- whorl, one narrower just below the suture, and the other broader below the periphery; there is also a streak of the latter colour on the base ; the penultimate whorl is mostly reddish-brown: spire very short: whorls 4, tumid; the last equals three-fourths of the spire, and is somewhat expanded towards the mouth : suture deep : mouth nearly round : outer lip thin :
* Shining.
14 LITTORINID.E.
inner lip having sometimes a pink tinge, thickened and slightly reflected at the base, behind which is a small chink : operculum ear-shaped, depressed in the centre, with a minute and nearly excentric spire. L. 0-035. B. 0*025.
Var. pallida. Strawcolour, without the upper, and sometimes without either band, occasionally having merely a pink or reddish-brown streak on the base.
Habitat : Abundant in the lower part of the littoral zone, among Zostera marina and small seaweeds, in the Channel Isles, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, and the south and west of Ireland. I have also found it sparingly in Langland Bay near Swansea, and Lough Larne near Belfast. Mr. Lyons noticed it at Tenby, and Mr. Nor- man in the Clyde district. The variety occurred to me feeding on Zostera at Lulworth. R. fulgida is fossil in Calabria (Philippi) . It inhabits the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of France, as well as Corsica, Piedmont, Sicily, Dalmatia, and Candia.
This mite of a shell is not half the size of the next species (R. soluta) , from which it differs in colour, want of sculpture, shorter spire, having the last whorl more expanded, and a less distinct umbilical cleft. It is often encrusted with Melobesia polymorpha. Mr. Clark's first impression, adopted by Forbes and Hanley, that the operculum is not spiral, was properly corrected by him in his own work. He says that the animal does not walk straight; that it " often jerks or screws the shell a quarter of a round, and carries it almost perpendi- cularly ; '' and that " on the march the eyes are always under the shell, as are usually the muzzle and foot, the ends of the tentacula only being visible/' I frequentlv observed it spinning a fine transparent slimy thread, and thus hanging suspended to a bit of seaweed or to the surface of the water. It also swims freely, like its con- geners.
RISSOA. 45
It is the R.pygmcea of Michaudj and probably R.fas- ciata of Requien.
23. R. solu'ta*, Philippi.
R. soluta, Phil. Moll. Sic. ii. p. 130, t. xxiii. f. 18 ; F. & H. iii. p. 131, pi. lxxv. f. 3, 4.
Body pale-yellowish-white, minutely speckled with flaky points : mantle lining the month of the shell : filament con- spicuous: snout short, having a pink or dull-reddish- brown tinge above, and a patch of bright sulphur- yellow on each side below : tentacles cylindrical but somewhat compressed, slender, thickly covered with fine and rather long cilia : eyes scarcely raised, usually seen within the shell : foot long and narrow, labiated in front and slightly auricled at the corners, bluntly pointed behind : appendage very long and distinct, flattish at the base, and tapering to a fine point.
Shell conic-oval, with a tendency to globoseness, solid for its size, semitransparent, and rather glossy: sculpture, extremely fine and somewhat numerous spiral striae, which are not per- ceptible except by a very strong magnifier or (in some speci- mens) under a microscope: colour uniform buff or pale-yellowish: spire very short, with a blunt point : whorls 5, convex, the last equalling two- thirds of the spire : suture deep : mouth more round than oval : outer lip rather thick : inner lip reflected at the base, behind which is a small umbilical chink : operculum ear-shaped, marked with a few diverging lines of growth. L. 0-05. B. 0-035.
Var. Alderi. Larger and thinner, with a more produced and pointed spire. B. Alderi, Jeftr. in Ann. and Mag. N. H. ser. 3. iii. p. 127, pi. v. f. 5 a-c.
Habitat : Coralline zone in Shetland, the Hebrides, and Guernsey ; also in Dunnet Bay, Pentland Firth, and Moray Firth (Gordon), Aberdeenshire coast (Dawson), Clyde district (Webster and others), Belfast Bay (Hynd- man and J. G. J.), Dublin Bay (Kinahan), Cork (J. G. J.),Bantry Bay (Beevor), Arran Isle, co. Galway (Bar- lee), west coast of Ireland (Hoskyns) , Fowey and Kings- bridge (Barlee), Helford (Hockin), Exmonth (Clark),
* Loose (referring to the convolutions of the spire).
46 LITTORINID^.
and Plymouth (J. G. J.). The variety occurred to me in the laminarian zone at Skye, and the "Whalsey Skerries in the east of Shetland. Fossil in the post-glacial beds of Norway from the present level of the sea to 100 feet above it (Sars). This author has also noticed it living on the Norwegian coasts as far north as Oxfjord in Finmark ; I found it at Etretat in Normandy, Martin in the Gulf of Lyons, Mace at Antibes, and Philippi at Sorrento and Palermo. Although local, it is not un- common.
It is an active and restless little creature. I observed in this and other species ofRissoa an upward and down- ward current or movement on the surface of each ten- tacle, apparently caused by the action of the cilia.
Having carefully compared British and Mediterranean specimens, I still believe that Philippics description and figure of R. soluta fairly represent our shell. It varies considerably in the length and compactness of the spire, as well as in the degree of sculpture. Indeed the striae cannot be detected in most specimens unless by means of a high magnifying-power, which possibly Philippi was not in the habit of using. He especially mentioned the umbilical fissure that characterizes the present shell. Searles Wood proposed to call our species intersecta, in case its identification with Philippics species should prove to be erroneous; Bean gave it the MS. name of minutissima, and Martin that of globosa. The last two names I have seen in collections.
24. R. semistria'ta"*, Montagu.
Turbo semistriatus, Mont. Test. Br. Suppl. p. 136. B. semistriata, F. & H. iii. p. 117, pi. lxxx. f. 4, 7.
Body pale-yellowish-white : pallial filament short : snout
* Half-striated.
RISSOA. 47
not so long as in many other species, grooved in the centre above, and deeply cloven at the extremity : tentacles cylindrical but somewhat compressed, rather long, and covered with close-set cilia : eyes on scarcely raised tubercles : foot squarish in front, with slightly angular corners, and tapering behind to a blunt point : appendage tricuspid and short, placed over the tail but never projecting beyond it.
Shell conic-oval, rather solid, semitransparent, and some- what glossy : sculpture, on the body- whorl below the suture about half a dozen slight spiral striae, of which the upper two close to the suture are much stronger than the rest, and about a dozen similar and distinct striae below the periphery, the intermediate space being faintly also striated or frequently quite smooth ; the other whorls exhibit the subsutural striae only : colour pale yellowish-white, with a row of reddish-brown short and broad longitudinal streaks or blotches on the upper part of each whorl, and a second row of smaller and narrower streaks on the lower part, which last are often interrupted or broken ; the other whorls are seldom marked in this way : spire rather short but pointed, with a blunt tip : ivhorls 6, rounded but not convex, the last occupying nearly two-thirds of the spire : suture slight, encircled by the uppermost and strongest stria of each whorl: mouth open, though not expanded: outer lip sharp : inner lip reflected on the pillar and base, united above with the outer lip : operculum yellowish, and thin, slightly striated. L. 0-01. B. 0-065.
Yar. pura. White and spotless.
Habitat : Littoral and laminarian zones, in England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland as far north as the outer Hebrides (J. G. J.), Aberdeenshire (Dawson), Moray Firth (Gordon), and Shetland (Barlee). The variety is equally diffused, but more common in Guernsey than elsewhere. Lilljeborg found this species in Norway, and it occurs in the Cattegat ; but southwards it becomes more frequent, both on the eastern coasts of the North Atlantic and in the Mediterranean; Adriatic (von Schrockinger) ; Algeria (Weinkauff) .
This pretty little mollusk, which Clark called " a bashaw with three tails/' congregates in family groups
48 LITTORINID^E.
on the under surfaces of stones laid bare at low water of spring tides. It swims, like its congeners, with the sole of the foot uppermost.
It is possibly the Turbo scriptus of Adams, and un- questionably R. pulchra of Johnston, R. tristriata of Thompson, and R. subsulcata of Philippi. R. semistriata of the last named author, from the Red Sea, appears to be different from our species.
25. R. cingil'lus *, Montagu.
Turbo cingillus, Mont. Test. Br. p. 328, t. 12. f. 7. B. cingillus, F. & H. iii. p. \ 22, pi. lxxix. f. 9, 10, and (animal) pi. J J. f. 4.
Body pale -yellowish -white or milk-white; snout semi- transparent : tentacles long, nearly cylindrical, flexible, with somewhat bulbous tips : eyes black and conspicuous, sometimes on whitish tubercles : foot narrow, bat proportionally short, squarish in front and bluntly pointed behind ; caudal cirrus not observed.
Shell conic-oblong, rather solid, semitransparent, and somewhat glossy : sculpture, on the body-whorl from 12 to 20 slight spiral ridges, which are sharp and distinct below the periphery, but more or less obsolete above it ; these ridges are scarcely perceptible on the other whorls ; they are crossed by numerous fine striae in the line of growth, causing an imperfect decussation ; the last whorl is slightly angulated : colour buff or yellowish-white, with two chocolate or reddish-brown bands on the last whorl, and one on each of the upper whorls, besides part of a second band above the suture ; there is also a third, shorter band or streak at the base ; and occasionally, when the bands are narrow, a fourth may be seen between the lower band and the basal streak : spire long and gradually tapering, with a -blunt tip : ivhorls 6-7, flattened, the last occupying about two -fifths of the spire : suture distinct and slightly channelled : mouth rather small : outer lip sharp : inner lip forming a glaze on the pillar, and united with the upper lip at the outer angle : operculum horncolour, marked with diverging lines of growth. L. 0-175. B. 0-085.
Var. rupestris. Creamcolour or milk-white, and bandless. R. rupestris, Forbes in Ann. N. H. v. p. 107, pi. 2. f. 13.
* For cingillum, a small girdle.
RISSOA. 49
Habitat : Gregarious, between tide-marks, on nearly every part of our shores. The variety is equally diffused, but nowhere so common as at Wevmouth and Lulworth. The only locality recorded for this species as fossil is Ireland, on the authority of Capt. Brown. Its foreign range probably extends from Iceland (Zoega, fide Linne) , along the Scandinavian coast from Bergen, southwards to the iEgean (Forbes) . It has been found in several parts of France, Spain, and the north of Italy.
It appears to subsist on decayed seaweeds. Every shade and gradation, as regards the colour and bands, may be observed ; and I have a slightly turreted distor- tion.
Linnets description (in the 12th volume of his l Sys- tema Naturae ') of Helix pella may suit this species ; and there is no doubt that it is the Turbo trifasciatus of Adams, and T. vittatus of Donovan. Although all these names have precedence of that given by Montagu, I must retain his as now universally accepted. Custom, wills that, in science as well as in literature, names and words in general use should be preferred to those which are obsolete, although the latter may have the claim of priority ; nor will the feeble cry of justice to the memory of the author be listened to while the loud and imperious demand of public convenience is ringing in our ears. Michaud called this species R. cingilus, and Macgillivray R. cingillata. A variety of a paler hue is Turton's Turbo graphicus ; and the variety rupestris is R. fallax of Brown.
The " spurious " or un-English species of Rissoa are as follows : —
1. R. auriscalpium {Turbo, L.) = T. marginatus , Mont. = T. arcuatus, Dillw. = R. acuta, Desm. = R. acicula, Risso = Zippora Drummondii and Z. Drummondiana,
VOL. IV. D
50 LITTORINID.E.
i
t
Leach : said to have been found at Dunbar by Laskey — an authority not to be relied on, seeing that Tellina carnaria, Amphidesma nitens, Siliquaria bidens, and several other exotic shells are enumerated by him from that locality ; Dunbar also (Bingham, fide Brown) ; Cork (Leach) . It is a common Mediterranean shell.
2. R.disjuncta (T. disjunctus,^/Lont.). West-Indian.
3. R. Montagui, Payr. = R. Binghami, Brown : St. Fergus's Bay, Peterhead (Bingham, fide Brown) . Medi- terranean and Adriatic.
4. R. glabrata, v. Muhlf. = R. punctulum, Phil. = R. ni- tida, Brusina : Shetland and Skye (J. Gr. J., in conse- quence of sifting shell- sand through sieves which were not properly cleaned after I had used them on the Pied- montese coast). Mediterranean and Adriatic.
5. R. cimex {Turbo, L.) = T. calathiscus, Mont. = Alvania Europe a, A. mamillata, and A. Fremingvillea, Risso=i?. cancellata, Desm.=i?. granulata, Phil. : Isle of Jura (Laskey); Cumbrae (J. Smith). Mediterra- nean and Adriatic.
In the same category may be placed several species of Rissoina, a genus instituted by D'Orbigny to receive certain shells allied to Rissoa, which have the lower part of the mouth slightly channelled, and the operculum furnished underneath with a process like that of Neri- tina. There is no British species of Rissoina. Those erroneously recorded as such are : —
'1. Rissoina Bruguieri, Payr.: Scarborough (Bean). Loire-Inferieure (Cailliaud) ; north coast of Spain (Mf Andrew) ; Adriatic (Heller) ; Mediterranean (Pay- raudeau and others) ; iEgean (Spratt) .
2. Rissoina Bryerea {Turbo Bryereus, Mont.) = T. costatus, Don.: Margate (Donovan); Weymouth (Bryer); Dunbar (Laskey) ; Cornwall, Portmarnock, and Firth of
HYDROBIA. 51
Forth (Brown) ; Peterhead (Crombie, fide Macgillivray) . West Indian.
3. Rissoina decussata {Turbo decussatus, Mont.) =R. pyramideUa, Brown : Weymouth (Bryer) ; Portobello Sands (Laskey) ; Dunbar (Brown). West-Indian.
4. Rissoina conifer a (Turbo coniferus, Mont.): Wey- mouth (Bryer) ; north of France (De Gerville) . West- Indian.
5. Rissoina denticulata {Turbo denticulatus , Mont.) : Weymouth (Bryer) ; Cornwall and Dunbar (Brown) ; Herm (Lukis). West-Indian.
The following are irrecognizable : — 1 . Rissoa sulcata, Brown: Dunbar (Bingham). Apparently a Rissoina. 2. Rissoa Candida, Brown : " Belton Sands near Dun- bar." Perhaps the same species as the last. 3. Rissoa lactea, Brown (not of Michaud) : " Dunbar." Another Rissoina, probably R. Chesnelii of Michaud, a native of the West Indies and Mauritius.
Genus IV. HYDROBIA. (See vol. i. p. 63.)
I would remind my readers that the chief characters by which the present genus is distinguishable from Rissoa (to which it is closely allied) consist in the foot of Hy- drobia wanting the opercular appendage or caudal fila- ment, and in Rissoa being truly marine, while this lives in estuaries and brackish water only. In the latter respect both genera may be regarded as the creatures of habitat. Their shells are equally small.
When I placed Hydrobia in the Paludinida, I had not sufficiently considered its systematic relations. I now withdraw it from that family. The description of the operculum (vol. i. p. 55) must be amended by omitting the words " or paucispiral."
d2
52 LITTOUINID^E.
Hydrobia ulv^e^ Pennant.
Turbo uIvcb, Penn. Br. Zool. iv. p. 132, t. lxxxvi. f. 120. Rissoa ulvce, F. & H. iii. p. 141, pi. lxxxi. f. 4, 5, 8, 9, pi. lxxxvii. f. 2, 8, and (animal) pi. JJ. f. 8.
Body light-slatecolour, dark-grey, or sootcolour, with more or less of a purple tinge, speckled with yellow, and having occasionally a few markings of purple-brown on the upper part: pallidl process thread-shaped, short, and ciliated: snout nearly cylindrical, prominent, and extensile, cloven at the ex- tremity, edged in front by a purplish -brown line, and having two yellow spots in the middle : tentacles thread-shaped but somewhat compressed, long, slender, and diverging, irregularly speckled with yellow, marked across a little below the tips by a bar or ring of purplish -brown, and edged with the same colour ; they are covered with fine and short, but not con- spicuous, vibratile cilia, and often (especially the left-hand ten- tacle) scalloped or serrated at the sides, like the weapon of a sword-fish, apparently in consequence of voluntary contraction ; tips rounded : eyes on small protuberances : foot lanceolate, squarish and double-edged in front with short salient cor- ners, narrower in the middle, and rounded behind ; it is mar- gined with a narrow purplish-brown line ; sole light-grey, with yellow specks : opercular lobe large and expanding on each side, darkpurplish-brown ; it has no filament, process, or ap- pendage of any kind.
Shell oblong, rather solid, opaque, and of a dullish hue : sculpture, under a hand-lens exhibiting occasionally a few slight spiral lines on the last whorl ; with a higher microscopic power may be detected on all the whorls extremely fine, close-set and numerous concentric wavy striae ; there are also the usual lon- gitudinal lines of growth ; the body-whorl is more or less distinctly keeled in the middle : colour yellowish or reddish- brown of various shades passing into horncolour : epidermis very thin, and mostly obscure : spire rather long and tapering, with a blunt tip : whorls 7-8, compressed, the last occupying about one-half of the spire viewed in a supine position : suture well-defined although not deep : mouth oval, narrowly an- gulated above, and effuse or spread out below, where it is also somewhat angular : outer lip thin and plain : inner lip white, reflected on the pillar and over the base of the shell, behind which it forms a small cleft or umbilical chink ; the
* Inhabiting Viva lactuca.
HYDROBIA. 53
lips are continuous aud make a complete peristome : operculum horny and thin, marked with flexuous and rather strong lines of growth, and having a small lateral spire of three whorls. L. 0-25. B. 0-125.
Yar. 1. albida. Of a whitish colour.
Yar. 2. Barleei. Smaller and spindle-shaped, the last whorl being contracted at the base, and the mouth much smaller than usual. Rissoa Barleei, Jeffr. in Ann. & Mag. N. H. xix. p. 310.
Yar. 3. octona. Smaller, thin, glossy, and horncolour, with the whorls more slowly increasing and divided by a deeper suture. Helix octona, Linn. S. N. p. 1248.
Habitat : All our tidal rivers, inlets, and bays ; cover- ing mud-flats and oozy sands in countless profusion. Var. 1 is occasionally found. Var. 2. Hebrides (Barlee and J. Gr. J.) ; the typical form occurs in Loch Carron and at Stornoway. This variety is littoral — although the specimens (dead ones) which I described as Rissoa Barleei were dredged in deep water, having accidentally got there. Lindstrom noticed the same variety on the eastern shores of the Baltic. Var. 3. In a large pool of brackish water, called Arnold's Pond, near Grand Havre Bay, Guernsey. This last variety inhabits the southern shores of the Baltic; and M. Tasle sent me specimens from Brittany. It may be a distinct species ; but we do not know the effect of local conditions and consequent change of food on the shape of animals. H. ulvce is fossil in a post-tertiary deposit at Belfast (Grainger) , Clyde beds (Smith and Crosskey) , Norwich Crag (Woodward), Red and Coralline Crag (S. Wood), Uddevalla (J. G. J.), Norway, in post-glacial beds (with the variety Barleei) , from the present level of the sea to 130 feet above it (Sars). Its foreign range extends from Finmark to Spain and throughout the Mediter- ranean ; and Dr. Philip Carpenter has recorded it as a
54 LITTORINIDiE.
native of the Gnlf of California. An allied species [Turbo minutus, Totten) appears to be its representative on the east coast of North America ; this has a smaller and more oval shell, with convex whorls.
" In summer it is the chief food of the grey mullet ; in winter various sea-birds feed upon it " (Hyndman). Its own subsistence is derived from Enter omorphce, Con- ferva, and other delicate seaweeds; and I can testify that it can fast a long while, having kept live specimens for many days in a vessel which contained nothing but water, without observing any diminution of their viva- city. Males are very much smaller than females (from which my description has been taken), and their shells have no keel. The former sex is probably the Turbo subumbilicatus of Montagu. The hollow space between the two edges in front of the foot is lined with vibratile cilia, by the action of which a fluctuating motion is pro- duced when the animal is crawling, and a tremulous one when it is at rest. The faeces are elliptic. Occasionally the surface of the shell is eroded and pitted, so as to ex- pose the innermost layers ; or the top whorls are trun- cated. In the latter case a rude semispiral partition is formed by the upper fold of the mantle, as in Truncatella truncatula. The spire is now and then seen to be un- naturally lengthened, evidently owing to some accident in early growth, when a fresh start had to be made. The shell is extremely variable in size and comparative con- vexity. My largest specimen (from Southampton) is upwards of four lines long.
It is the Bulimus anatinus of Poiret, and Turbo muri- aticus of Beudant, generically changed by Draparnaud and Lamarck to Cyclostoma and Paludina. Orsted de- scribed it as Paludinella vulgaris. I regard also the Paludina bait hie a of Nilsson and P. minuta of Requien
HETEROPHROSYNID^. 00
as local varieties. The Rissoa rubra of Macgillivray is certainly the present species, and not Barleeia rubra as he supposed.
Family X. HE'TEROPHROSY'NIDjE, Clark.
Body spiral : mantle plain-edged : head snout-shaped : ten- tacles cylindrical and short, with rounded tips : eyes sessile, or nearly so : foot double-edged in front ; hinder part of the sole slightly grooved down the middle.
Shell small, conical, and spiral : operculum not spiral but increasing by concentric layers, with the nucleus on the inner side, next to the pillar ; that side is strengthened by a rib, and furnished underneath with a spike -like process or plate, which projects from the nucleus.
As the name imports, these mollusks are abnormal, allied to the Littorinidce, and distinguishable from that family not much more than the Turbinidce are from the Trochidce* . The operculum is very peculiar. It has an excentric nucleus, like that of Buccinum, and an in- ternal process analogous to that of Neritina.
Although the appellation given by Mr. Clark is a long one, it must in justice and on other grounds be preferred to either of those subsequently proposed by Dr. Grav, viz. Rissoellidte and Barleeiadce. In the svs- tern of the latter author these families are separated by Cuaplida and several others.
The Heterophrosynidce are not restricted to the At- lantic Ocean : Dr. P. Carpenter has described some from the Pacific. They inhabit the laminarian zone, and ap- pear to be gregarious.
* See vol. iii. p. 337.
56 HETEKOPHROSYNID^E.
Genus I. BARLEE'IA*, Clark. PL I. f. 2.
Body stout : snout gibbous : eyes placed on small bulgings outside the tentacles, at their bases.
Shell solid and smooth : mouth oval, angulated above and below : operculum solid, ear-shaped, and gibbous, having the nucleus at the lower end of the inner side.
Differing from Rissoa not only in the structure of the operculum, but also in the mantle and opercular lobe of the animal in the present genus being destitute of filaments.
Barleeia rubral Montagu.
Turbo ruber, Mont. Test. Br. p. 320. Rissoa rubra, F. & H. iii. p. 120, pi. Ixxviii. f. 4, 5.
Body yellowish-white, often transversely brindled with smokecoloured lines : snout projecting beyond the foot, cloven in front, ileshcolour or pink on the upper part : tentacles club- shaped, sparingly setose in some specimens and smooth in others, marked internally down the middle by a brownish line, or speckled with yellow : eyes rather large and black, scarcely raised, sometimes encircled by a bright sulphurco- louredline : foot lanceolate, short, rounded in front and behind ; tail very slightly bifurcated : opercular lobe dark -purplish- brown.
Shell forming a short cone, remarkably strong, semitrans- parent, and glossy: sculpture, apparently none, but under a good magnifier consisting of a few indistinct spiral striae : colour dark-red, claret, yellowish -brown, or tawny : spire bluntly pointed : whorls 5|, compressed, gradually enlarging ; the last occupies three-fifths of the spire : suture slight, having fre- quently a dark band below it on each whorl, caused by the double layer of shell in that part : mouth rather small : outer lip slightly incurved at the upper angle, thickened in full- grown specimens, and spread out at the base : inner lip re- flected on the pillar, and united with the outer lip, but not so as to form a distinct peristome : operculum dark- crimson,
* Named in honour of the late George Barlee, Esq., a zealous and in- defatigable conchologist. t Red.
BARLEEIA. 57
composed of 5 or 6 irregularly concentric portions, the marks of division or growth being obscure ; columellar side grooved near the margin, and having a corresponding rib under- neath. L. 0-125. B. 0-6.
Yar. 1. unifdsciatd. Creamcolour or whitish, with a broad band of reddish -brown encircling each whorl, sometimes di- vided into two narrower zones. Turbo unifasciatus, Mont. Test. Br. p. 320 ; F. & H. pi. lxxx. f. 3.
Var. 2. pallida. White, with a faint tinge of blush colour.
Habitat : Seaweeds at low water in the Channel Isles, and on many parts of the coasts of Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall; Cork (Wright and J. G. J.); Bantry (Barlee and Norman); Connemara (Barlee and Alcock); Bundoran, co. Donegal (J. G. J.). The following re- quire confirmation : — Southampton (Montagu) ; Tenby (Lyons); Whitley, Northumberland (Fryer); Dublin Bay (Turton) ; Lamlash Bay, Bute (Landsborough) ; Dunbar (Laskey) ; Aberdeenshire (Macgillivray) . Both varieties occur with specimens of the usual colour. The foreign localities are Cherbourg and adjacent coast (Mace); Rochelle (D'Orbigny pere and J. G. J.) ; Biar- ritz (v. Martens, ^7<? Troschel) ; Gulf of Lyons (Michaud and Martin) ; Nice (Verany) ; Spezzia (J. G. J.) ; Corsica (Michaud, D'Orbigny pere, and Requien) ; Dalmatia (Brusina) ; Sicily (Philippi) ; and Teneriffe (M' Andrew) .
B. rubra is tolerably active. It occasionally secretes a slight mucous filament, by which it suspends itself from a seaweed or the surface of the water ; and it also floats, with the foot uppermost, like the Rissoa?. The faecal pellets are oval and whitish. The male is smaller than the female. I unfortunately misled the authors of the 1 British Mollusca' by communicating the description which they published as that of the animal of the va- rity unifasciata ; it was taken from Hydrobia ulvce (as Mr. Clark suspected) . The living shell of the present
d 5
K
8 HETEROPHROSYNID.E.
species is frequently encrusted by the common Melo- hesia or nullipore in its earlier stage of growth. The dark-crimson colour of the operculum offers a remark- able contrast to the white shell of the 2nd variety. In Professor TroscheFs ' Gebiss der Schnecken ' (vol. i. t. x. f. 8) the lingual riband is represented as nearly similar to that of Rissoa parva.
Turbo ruber of Adams (from the Pembrokeshire coast) appears to have been derived from a reddish specimen of Rissoa parva, var. interrupta. Our shell is R. fulva of Michaud, and Sabancea Binghamiana of Leach.
Genus II. JEFFREY'SIA*, Alder. PI. I. f. 3.
Body slender : snout cloven so deeply that in some species the lobes thus formed resemble a second pair of tentacles : eyes placed behind the tentacles, on their inner side, either on small bulgings or sessile.
Shell thin, smooth, and glossy : mouth oval or roundish- oval, with a complete peristome : operculum rather thin, having the nucleus on the middle of the inner side, and a short rib on the under side, which proceeds from the nucleus in the di- rection of the outer margin.
The above characters show a greater departure from Rissoa than those of the last genus. According to Mr. Alder the lingual armature of Jeffreysia closely resem- bles that of the common Rissoce ; and indeed we find that the animals of both genera are vegetarians. Mrs. Collings detected in the stomach of J. diaphana a species of Lythocystis allied to L. Allmani.
Dr. Gray makes this synonymous with his undescribed genus Rissoella. The type indicated by him, in lieu of a description, is Rissoa glabra of Brown, which is evi- dently an Odostomia (probably 0. rissoides)J having "a
* A compliment paid to the author by his friend Mr. Joshua Alder.
JEFFREYSIA. 59
slight plication at the base." In Gray's classified list of the Mollusca, published in 1847, Rissoella is given as a synonym of Odostomia.
1. Jeffreysia dia'phana*, Alder.
Bissoa ? glabra (afterwards R. ? diaphana), Aid. in Ann. N. H. xiii. p. 325, pi. 8. f. 1-4. J. diaphana, F. & H. iii. p. 152, pi. lxxvi. f. 1.
Body pale yellowish-white, faintly tinged with fleshcolour, and of a granular texture : snout expanding into two club- shaped lobes or processes, which diverge at the same angle as the tentacles, but are shorter and smaller: tentacles cylindri- cal, compressed (both the false and true tentacles are covered with vibratile cilia. Alder) : eyes rather distinct than large, sessile and placed far back on the neck within the shell ; each is encircled by a slight integument, so as to appear raised : foot lanceolate, somewhat bilobed in front, and angulated at each corner, rounded or bluntly pointed behind : opercular lobe mottled with brown, extending a little beyond the edges of the foot.
Shell forming a rather short and oblique cone, very thin, quite transparent, and of a somewhat iridescent lustre : sculp- ture, apparently none, but under a good magnifier consisting of delicate although obscure spiral striae ; the lines of growth are equally microscopical, but finer and more numerous : colour whitish: spire having a blunt and abrupt point: whorls 4|, convex, gradually enlarging ; the last occupies three-fifths of the spire; first whorl rounded: suture deep: mouth rather large : outer lip sharp, incurved above, rounded and slightly expanded below : inner lip rather flexuous, its outline being accommo- dated to the curve of the pillar ; behind it is a narrow umbi- lical chink : operculum yellowish-white, depressed in the centre, composed of 4 or 5 segments or layers, which are indistinctly defined, and closely striated in the same concentric direction ; the inner side forms a very obtuse angle, the opposite side being rounded ; spike triangular and flattened, having its nar- rower end at the base ; medial rib short, diverging from the spike at a right angle ; rib on the inner side marginal and slight. L. 0-075. B. 0-05.
'o'
Habitat : Delesseria hypoglossum and various other
* Transparent.
60 HETEROPHROSYNID.E.
seaweeds, at low-water mark and a little beyond it, on many parts of our coast from Shetland to the Channel Isles inclusive. It was first noticed near Dublin and at Cullercoats by Mr. Alder. The only foreign localities of which I am aware are Cape Levi near Cherbourg (Mace), and Spezzia (J. Gr. J.).
At the Whalsey Skerries /. diaphana occurs in com- pany with its two congeners, J. globularis and J. opalina : the scale of their comparative frequency is the order here given, the last-named being the most numerous of the three. The present species is very active in crawling and floating ; and it spins a slimy suspensile thread. When many specimens are left for some hours in a vessel of water, they congregate in small clusters, as if actuated by a social instinct. The spawn deposited by one individual consisted of only two ova, which were enclosed in a gelatinous hemispherical case. Owing to the extreme and glassy transparency of the shell, the dark reddish-brown liver is very conspicuous, even after the animal has dried up.
Perhaps this shell was the Turbo nitidus of Adams, from the Pembrokeshire coast, where it is not uncommon.
2. J. opa'lina*, Jeffreys.
Rlssoa (?) opalina, Jeffr. in Ann. & Mag. N. H. ser. 2. ii. p. 351. J. opa- lina, R & H. iii. p. 154, pi. lxxvi. f. 3, 4 ; iv. (app.) p. 267, pi. cxxxiii. f. 6, and (animal) pi. MM. f. 2, a-b.
Body, above, dark-grey, mottled with purplish -brown or soot- colour ; below, dirty yellow : snout short, rounded, seldom pro- jecting beyond the foot ; front edge finely scalloped : tentacles club-shaped, and of a paler colour [" very moderately setose," Clark] ; they appear four in number, arranged in two pairs, each tentacle being nearly equal in length and thickness ; the second or lower pair are scarcely part of the snout, because they issue from the neck, like the other pair : eyes sessile, rather
* Of an opal hue.
JEFF11EYSIA. 61
close together, and surrounded by pale rings ; they are visible only through the shell: foot large, triangular, bilobed, and slightly auricled in front, bluntly pointed behind.
Shell oval, extremely thin, semitransparent, highly glossy and of an opaline lustre : sculpture as in the last species : colour bronze or dark horncolour when the shell is living or contains the remains of the animal, yellowish when it is empty : spire short, with an abrupt and blunt point: whorls 3|, swollen, rapidly enlarging ; the last occupies at least three-fourths of the spire, and the first is mammiform : suture broad and deep : mouth oval, capacious, and more than half the length of the spire: outer lip sharp and thin, incurved above, slightly an- gulated and expanding below : inner lip nexuous and thick- ened on the lower part of the pillar, behind which it forms a narrow umbilical chink : operculum similar to that of J. dia- phana ; but the spike or apophysis is slightly curved, and oc- casionally double, so as to make two separate leaves. L. 0*1. B. 0-075.
Habitat : Guernsey and Sark, in rock-pools among Corallina officinalis (Barlee) ; Falmouth (Cocks and Barlee) ; Cumbrae, Clyde district (Norman) ; Skye (A. M'Nab) ; Wlialsey Skerries, Shetland, on Laminaria saccharina, a little beyond low-water mark (J. G. J.). Although very local, it is abundant. I found a single specimen at Lerici ; and Verany lias recorded this species from Nice.
At the Whalsey Skerries it especially frequents a sheltered part of the sound, close to a fish-curing station, where the offal is thrown out. The other species of Jeffrey sia and Trochus helicinus are its companions. Do all these feed on decaying animal matter, or on Infu- soria produced from it ? The spawn is deposited on leaves of the Laminaria ; it is of a semioval shape, with a large hole in the middle. TVhen ripe it forms a thick mass, and contains an immense number of yellowish unispiral shells which are agglutinated together by a gelatinous matrix. The adult shell resembles Hydrobia
62 HETEROPHROSYNID^E.
similis; but it is not so turreted, and the spire has a blunt instead of a sharp point. A dead specimen from Falmouth is marked with nexuous and close- set longi- tudinal striae, arising probably from a partial decay of the surface.
A comparison of the description of this species with that of J. diaphana, as regards their soft parts, may serve to show that the tentacles of all the Mollusca, whether univalve or bivalve, are nothing more than a development of the mantle, endued with special sensi- bility as organs of touch or of some other less direct medium of sensation. In some cases (e. g. Chiton, Ho- malogyra, certain species of the Bulla family, and infe- rior kinds of the naked Mollusca) tentacles are entirely wanting ; while in others (e. g. the present species of Jeffreysia, and most of the Pulmonobranchiata) the usual pair becomes double, as if for the purpose of in- creasing the sense of perception. In Pecten and those bivalves which have the mantle open the tentacles are numerous ; the cirri fringing the tubes of the majority of bivalves which have the mantle more or less closed appear to be supplementary organs of a similar nature ; and so are the appendages of the head and opercular lobe in Trochus, Rissoa, and many univalves, as well as the cilia that cover the body in Stilifer. But I must not get out of my depth. We cannot all be physio- logists,
" And take upon us the mystery of things, As if we were God's spies."
3. J. globula'ris*, Jeffreys.
J. globularis (Jeffreys, MS.), F. & H. ir. app. p. 268, pi. crxxiii. f. 5.
Body dark-grey, finely streaked with purplish-brown, paler underneath : snout forming two short cylindrical processes,
* Globular.
JEFFftEYSIA. 63
which resemble tentacles but are close together : tentacles cy- lindrical, rather short, with blunt tips : eyes large, round, and sessile, placed far behind the tentacles : foot lanceolate, short, deeply cloven and bilobed in front, bluntly pointed or almost round behind.
Shell globosely conical (like that of Valvata piscinalis), ex- tremely thin, transparent, highly glossy, and partially irides- cent : sculpture the same as in the preceding two species : colour whitish when the shell is empty, dark horncolour when con- taining the animal or its dried remains : spire short and com- pressed ; apex blunt : whorls 3|, very tumid, rapidly enlarging ; the last occupies three-fourths of the spire : suture remarkably deep : mouth roundish-oval, somewhat detached, half the length of the spire : outer lip sharp and thin, considerably incurved above, slightly expanding and rounded below : inner lip sepa- rated from the pillar to a greater extent than in either of the other species, so as to make the peristome more distinct : umbilicus rather narrow but deep : operculum shorter and more oval compared with that of the other species ; the marks of growth are also more conspicuous, and evidently show a concentric arrangement. L. 0-05. B. 0-065.
Monstr. Partly scalariform, in consequence of the suture being excavated and becoming much broader near the mouth.
Habitat : On Laminaria at Croulin Island, in Skve (Barlee), and, with /. diaphana and J. opalina, at the Whalsey Skerries (Barlee and J. G. J.) ; rather plentiful.
The tentacular processes of the snout in this species are much smaller and further apart than the true tentacles. In J. opalina the snout is very prominent, and quite distinct from the second pair of tentacles. In both species the hinder tentacles are usually borne at a right angle to the axis of the shell, and the other processes in front diverge at an angle of about 45°.
64 SKENEID.E.
Family XI. SKENE'ID^, (Skeneadce) Clark.
Body coiled in a circle : head large and snout-shaped : ten- tacles cylindrical in one genus, and wanting in another : eyes proportionally large, either almost sessile and placed at the outer bases of the tentacles, or quite sessile and placed behind the head : foot short : opercular lobe not furnished with any process or filament.
Shell minute, circular, with a wide umbilicus : spire much depressed, or even involute : mouth round, having united edges that form a complete peristome : operculum horny, circular, and spiral.
There is a seeming incongruity in the above descrip- tion, with regard to the characters founded on the soft parts ; but certain genera of Bullidce are provided with tentacles, while others have none. The form of the shell in the present family exhibits a greater concord- ance than that of the animal. At all events some kind of classification is indispensable : as with heraldry, so with our science,
" Order is Nature's beauty, and the way To order is by rules that Art hath framed."
The Skeneidae are at present not much known, owing to their minute size. All the species hitherto described (three in number) inhabit the North Atlantic and Me- diterranean ; two are post-tertiary. In a recent or living state they are gregarious, and are sublittoral or fre- quent the higher part of the laminarian zone.
Genus I. SKE'NEA* Fleming. PL I. f. 4.
Body depressed : tentacles cylindrical : eyes almost sessile, and placed at the outer bases of the tentacles.
Shell having the spire very little raised : whorls cylindrical : * Named after Dr. David Skene, a friend and correspondent of Solander.
SKENE A. 65
mouth placed below the spire, and more or less detached from the body-whorl : operculum many-whorled, with a central nucleus.
Although the definition of this genus by its founder, Dr. Fleming, is extremely vague (" spire depressed, and destitute of spinous processes ") , common usage has established it. It originally contained three so-called species, viz. S. depressa, S. serpuloides, and S. divisa. The first of these (or S. planorbis) is the type and sole representative; the other two are synonymous, and belong to the genus Cyclostrema. More species were afterwards added, but doubtfully, by Forbes and Hanley; these have now been assigned to what I consider their proper places. The tongue of Skenea is very much like that of Rissoa.
The present genus is partly Delphinoidea of Brown.
Skenea planok/bis*, Fabricius.
Turbo planorbis, Fabr. Fn. Grcenl. p. 394. S. planorbis, F. & H. iii. p. 156, pi. lxxiv. f. 1-3, and (animal) pi. GGk f. 1 & la.
Body greyish-white : snout rounded and gibbous; tentacles long and widely divergent ; they are not, as in Rissoa, setose : eyes seated on broad and scarcely raised protuberances : foot truncated in front and rounded behind ; sole marked down the middle of the posterior half with a slight groove or line.
Shell resembling in shape a miniature Helix ericetorum, thin, opaque, and seldom glossy : sculpture, only a few slight and obscure puckers in the line of growth : colour reddish-brown, or pale tawny : spire scarcely visible, unless viewed edgewise or with the mouth of the shell towards the observer ; apex blunt and rounded : whorls 4, rather loosely coiled ; the last much larger in proportion to the others, and occupying at least three-fourths of the shell : suture deep : mouth projecting out- wards, with a sharp and somewhat flexuous edge ; umbilicus forming a wide, open, and rather deep funnel, usually exposing the interior of the spire : operculum clear-white, concave, with
* Flat-coil.
66 SKENEID.E.
7 or 8 obliquely striated turns, the last of which is propor- tionally much the largest ; the under side has a small boss or nipple-shaped point in the centre. L. 0-03. B. 0-06.
Yar. 1. trochiformis. Spire more prominent, and umbilicus consequently contracted.
Var. 2. maculata. Yellowish-white ; the last whorl spirally ornamented by a double row of circular reddish-brown spots, one above and the other below the periphery.
Yar. 3. Jiyalina. Clear- white and transparent.
Habitat : Plentiful under stones and on seaweeds between tide-marks all round the coast. Var. 1. Shet- land, Skye, and Lough Larne ; this seems to bear the same relation to the common form as the Helix rupes- tris of Studer and Draparnaud does to the H umbilicata of Montagu. Var. 2. Channel Isles. Var. 3. Skye and Channel Isles. Fossil : Clyde beds (Smith and Cross- key); Fort William (J. G. J.); post-glacial and glacial beds in Norway, 130-380 feet (Sars). Recent : Spitz- bergen (Torell) ; Iceland (Steenstrup and Torell) ; Scan- dinavia (Loven and others) ; north of France (Mace, Cailliaud and J. G. J.); Cannes (Mace); Nice (Ve- rany); Spezzia (J. G. J.); Madeira (Johnson, fide Han- ley) ; Greenland (Fabricius and Moller) ; Massachusetts (Gould, as S. serpuloides) ; from Cape Cod northwards (Stimpson) . Although it is a sublittoral species, Malm has dredged it in 10 f. on the Swedish coast, and Mf An- drew in 15-4-0 f. on that of Upper Norway.
This little mollusk feeds upon Lichina pygmcea and small Conferva . It swims with facility in an inverted posture, and occasionally suspends itself in the water by spinning a viscous thread with its foot. When crawl- ing, the shell is carried sideways, not erect. Mediter- ranean specimens are frequently spotted, like our 2nd variety.
It is the Helix depressa of Montagu.
HOMALOGYRA. 67
Genus II. HO'MALOGY'RA* (formerly Omalogyra),
Jeffreys. PL I. f. 5.
Body flattened : tentacles wanting : eyes quite sessile, and placed behind the head.
Shell forming a flat coil, and having an involute spire : whorls more or less angulated : mouth clasping both sides of the periphery : operculum few-whorled, with a central nucleus.
The animal is unlike that of any known Pectinibran- chiate mollusk ; and, if we except Omalaxis or Bifrontia, the shell has no existing parallel among the marine uni- valves. In the latter respect it may be regarded as the analogue of Planorbis. The upper part of the body of H. atomus is partially ciliated. This character is exhi- bited to a greater extent in Stilifer, as well as in the tentacles of Trochus, Rissoa, Ccecum, and other genera. Dr. Fischer was rather too positive in stating (Journ. Conch, vii. p. 365) that my observations proved, " d'une maniere irrefragable/' the animal of the present genus to be the fry of some mollusk. The only instance ad- duced by him in support of such a conjecture is the change which many of the Nudibranchs undergo in the larval state. Their embryonic shells, however, have a rudimentary spire of scarcely a single whorl, and are all of the same size in each species, the animals are natatory, and the metamorphosis is of short duration. The shells of Homalogyra, on the contrary, have a com- plete spire of from 3 to 4 whorls, and are of various sizes (indicating different stages of growth) ; the animals crawl about, and they are met with at all seasons of the year. There is no more reason to suppose that Homalogyra is an immature mollusk than Skenea, Cy- clostrema, or any other minute kind. The tongue of
* A flat circle.
68 skeneid^e.
H. atomus, examined by Dr. Lukis and Mr. Alder, lias only a single row of teeth (as in some of the Pleuro- branchiata and sea-slugs) , resembling miniature sharks' teeth. The snout or head-lobe and position of the eyes remind us of Akera bullata. Mr. Alder remarks that " the animal is altogether of very simple structure, and one of what Milne-Edwards calls degraded forms, occu- pying a similar position among the Testacea to what Limapontia does among the naked mollusks." I have placed it provisionally in the Skenea family.
I am still of opinion that this is a legitimate but di- minutive descendant of the ancient genus Euomphalus. From a dislike to offend the prejudices of palaeontolo- gists, who treat the notion of reviving an " extinct " genus as a scientific heresy, I have substituted another name; but so notoriously imperfect is the geological record that we ought not to be surprised if the pedigree of Euomphalus cannot be traced down to the present time. Homalogyra is an upper tertiary fossil ; and several species of flat-spired shells, which have been as- signed to Solarium, occur in older formations, and may be the missing links of the genealogical chain. The description of Euomphalus in Sowerby's c Mineral Con- chology ' (vol. i. p. 97) is as follows : — " An involute compressed univalve ; spire depressed on the upper part, beneath concave or largely umbilicate. Aperture mostly angular/' The tiny living representative of the great Trilobite family offers an analogy to the present case. Has all creation dwindled, and are these its last days ? Brown's genus Planaria was founded on young speci- mens of Planorbis spirorbis and P. albus, which had been washed down by a freshwater stream into the sea. His genus Spira is characterized as " nearly globular or semiovate," and comprised the fry of some common
HOMALOGYRA. 69
species of Rissoa. In the ' Microdoride Mediterranea } of Costa (1861) the present genus is described under the name of Ammonicerina.
1. HOMALOGYRA A TOMUS * Pllilippi.
Trimcatdla atoraus, Phil, in Arch. f. Nat. (1841) vii. pt. 1. p. 54, t. v. f. 4. Skcnea nitidissima, F. & H. iii. p. 158, pi. lxxiii. f. 7, 8.
Body yellowish-white on the upper side, and of a paler hue underneath, nearly hyaline: snout or head-veil short, broad, expansile and very flexible, forming in front two semicircular lobes ; these lobes are sometimes separated by an intermediate membrane, which slightly projects, so as to make the extremity appear trilobed ; the front part is usually, but not always, clothed with numerous irregularly disposed cilia of different lengths and sizes ; when fully extended this part is so trans- parent that the foot can be seen through it : tentacles none, nor the slightest vestige of any, in whatever position or light the animal is viewed : eyes large in proportion, seated about half- way between the front edge of the shell and the extremity of the snout: foot lanceolate, slightly bilobed in front, and rounded or bluntly pointed behind : opercular lobe sometimes having on its upper margin a few cilia like those on the snout.
Shell resembling in shape a miniature Planorbis corneus, not very thin, semitransparent, and glossy : sculpture, usually fine and close-set indistinct striae in the line of growth, but occa- sionally also some obscure ridges in the same direction on the first-formed whorls, and a few white varicose streaks on the body- whorl : colour reddish-brown or pale tawny : spire sunk below the level of the last whorl ; apex blunt : whorls 3, com- pactly coiled, rounded on the upper side, and somewhat angu- lated or flattened on the under side ; the last nearly enwraps all the rest, which are exceedingly small : suture deep : mouth projecting a little outwards, with a sharp and even edge; it is indented behind by the peiiphery : umbilicus wide, open, and almost flat, fully exposing the interior of the spire : operculum clear-white, flat, with 3 or 4 gradually increasing turns, which are denned by a thickened edge, and obliquely but slightly striated. L. 0-0125. B. 0-035.
Yar. vitrea. Shell of a glassy transparency.
* An atom.
70 SKENEID.E.
Habitat : Abundant almost everywhere in the upper region of the laminarian zone, just beyond low water, on seaweeds and Zostera marina. I will mention a few localities to show the extent of distribution : — Shetland, Skye, all Ireland, Scarborough, Bristol Channel, Land's End, Torbay, and the Channel Isles. The variety was found in Loch Fyne by Mr. Barlee. This species is fossil in the Clyde district (Crosskey), near Fort William (J. G. J.), and in post-glacial beds, Norway, from the present sea-level to 100 feet above it (Sars). In a living or recent state it ranges abroad from Norway, in the laminarian zone (Sars) to Bohuslan, 10 f. (Malm), Cat- tegat (mus. Copenhagen), Etretat (J. G. J.), Cherbourg and Vallognes (Mace) , Provence (Petit) , Nice ( Verany) , Corsica (D'Orbigny pere), Sardinia (Costa), Spezzia and Sestri di Levante (J. G. J.), Sorrento (Philippi), toLa- calle in Algeria (Deshayes).
This little creature, on being captured and placed in a watch-glass with seawater, was at first shy ; but when left for a short time undisturbed it crawled about freely and rapidly, like a snail, with its shell raised in a slant- ing position ; and on its getting to the water's edge it turned upside down, and floated on the under surface. I observed it last year feeding on a Conferva, which it dragged into its mouth by means of its rake-like teeth. The snout was then contracted, and the rest of the body bunched up ; the front appeared to be delicately scalloped or crenellated. The heart beat quickly, about 100 per minute ; but the pulsation was intermittent. It after- wards retired into its house (perhaps to digest the meal) , whence it seemed to reconnoitre me through the shell, with its dark eyes, like a porter from within the window of a hall. The shell is sometimes encrusted, on one side or the other, with Polyzoa and species of Discorbina.
HOMALOGYRA. 71
Spawn- capsules which are occasionally found in the up- per cavity of the last whorl in dried specimens, and which may be presumed to belong to the Homalogyra, are of a tawny colour and oval, with a wide slit or orifice at the top of each, and agglutinated together in a cluster of 5 or 6 ; they are much larger than the capsules that I have observed of any Rissoa.
Philippi must have made a mistake (an infirmity that is common to us all) in describing and figuring this mollusk as similar to the animal of Truncatella triinca- tula ; and in the same work (Archiv fur Naturgeschichte, vii. pt. i. p. 53, t. v. f. 7) Assiminea litorina is equally misrepresented. Instead of all these three species having the eyes seated on the inner base of the tentacles, one only (T. truncatula) can be said to be in this cate- gory. H. atonius has not the slightest appearance of tentacles ; and in A. litorina the eyes are placed on their tips.
The present species was regarded by the authors of the ' British Mollusca ■ as Adams's Helix nitidissima. But that shell is evidently the fry of Zonites radiatulus, his H. bicolor being the fry of Z. cellarius. L. PfeifFer referred our shell, with a doubt, to his genus Paludinella. It is the Arnmonicerina simplex of Costa.
2. H. rota*, Forbes and Hanley.
skenea rota, F. & H. iii. p. 1(50, pi. lxxiii. f. 10, and lxxxviii. f. 1,2.
Shell resembling in shape a miniature Ammonite (of the section Capricorni, De Buch), thin, semitransparent, and lus- trous : sculpture, several ring-like ribs, from 20 to 25 on the last whorl of a full-grown specimen, besides 3 spiral keels (which vary in strength and are not always perceptible) and a few line intermediate striae ; one of these keels encircles the periphery, and the other two the middle of each whorl on the
* A wheel.
72 skeneidjE.
upper and under sides ; the ribs become slightly nodulous at the points where they are crossed by the keels, and they seldom extend on either side to the periphery : colour reddish-brown or pale-tawny, the keels being of a bright golden hue : spire not so much sunk below the level of the last whorl as in H. atomus ; apex blunt : whorls 3, compactly coiled, somewhat compressed, with a slope from the peripheral keel in an equal degree on both sides ; the last whorl is much larger than the next, but not so disproportionately large as in the other species : suture deep : mouth slightly expanding outwards, with a thin but even edge ; it has somewhat of a horseshoe shape, with the rounded end in front, the indentation behind by the peri- phery being considerable : umbilicus wide, open, and nearly flat, completely exposing the interior of the spire : operculum clear-white, rather concave, and having 2 or 3 rapidly enlar- ging turns. L. 0-0115. B. 0-025.
Habitat : In rock-pools among seaweed ; a scarce species, although equally diffused with H. atomus. The following list of places where it lias been found may be useful to collectors : — Lerwick, Skye, Bantry Bay, Cork, Scarborough, Sandwich, Isle of Wight, Weymouth, Falmouth, Tenby, and Manorbeer in Pembrokeshire, Oxwich and Caswell Bays near Swansea, and Guernsey (J. G. J.) ; Moray Firth (Gordon) ; " Landsborough's Bay" in Arran, N.B. (Norman); co. Donegal (War- ren) ; Boundstone, co. Galway (Barlee and Alcock) ; Exmouth (Clark) ; Mousehole near Penzance (Templer) ; Land's End and other parts of Cornwall (Webster) ; Sark (Mrs. Collings) . Its exotic range is less known ; it com- prises a sounding in N. lat. 55° 36', W. long. 54° 33', at the enormous depth of 1622 f. (Wallich), Bohuslan, in 10 f. (Malm), Gulf of Lyons (Martin), Spezzia (J. G. J.), Sardinia and the Mediterranean shores of Africa (Costa).
This is the smallest known species of British shells. It is an object
" Where unassisted sight no beauty sees."
VERMETIDiE.
'3
You are shown what appears a minute speck of dust. Examine it under a microscope : the wheel of Aurora's chariot, with its refulgent spokes, must have been a piece of ordinary workmanship compared with this ; its compactly convoluted shape, fine curved ribs, and en- circling rings of gold call forth an admiration which, if expressed with regard to human feelings, might be termed doating ; it unquestionably bears
•' The signature and stamp of power divine."
Mediterranean specimens of this and the last species are smaller than ours ; that from Greenland is still larger. Clark fancied the present shell to be the spiral posterior terminal portion of Caecum trachea ; but that is a very different object. I believe Montagu was acquainted with H. rota, because in a letter of his to Mr. Dillwyn, dated 8th March 1814, he mentions the discoverv of a verv minute Ammonite-like shell. In the Turtonian collection it was named " Cornu Ammonis."
It is the Skenea tricarinata of Webster, and the Am- monicerina pulchella and (young) A. paucicostata of Costa.
Family XII. VERMEfTID^E, D'Orbigny.
Body tubular : mantle having a circular border, and closely fitting the neck : head snout-shaped : tentacles cylindrical : eyes sessile, at the bases of the tentacles, and placed more or less externally : foot short. Hermaphrodite ?
Shell tubular, attached or free, usually (perhaps always) spiral or convoluted when young : mouth round : operculum horny, circular, and many-whorled, with a central nucleus.
I prefer following Clark, who placed in the present family the singular genus Ccecum, to arranging it among
VOL. IV. e
74 yermetidjE.
the TurritellidcB as proposed by Forbes and Hanley, or adopting Gray's name of Ccecidce. The affinity of C cecum to Vermetus is certainly very close, in respect not only of the animal, but also of the shell and operculum.
Genus CECUM * Fleming. PL I. f. 6.
Body short.
Shell free, forming a curved and small cylinder, having in an early stage of growth a loose but regular coil of whorls, which afterwards falls off, the truncated extremity being then closed by a plug: operculum solid.
Costa would not believe the strange metamorphosis which the shell undergoes ; but it is constant in every species. Such similitude in dissimilitude teaches us, as it did Charles Lamb,
" That harmonies may be in things unlike."
From Professor Stimpson's account of C. pulchel- lum it would seem that a fresh truncation takes place during each of the last three stages of growth, when a separate plug or septum is formed. This genus is evi- dently allied to Omalaxis or Bifrontia, in the convolution of the spire and form of the operculum. Our knowledge of the animal is entirely derived from Mr. Clark's excel- lent observations. Mr. Alder says, as to the tongue of C. trachea, " the lateral spines, in two longitudinal rows, are slender and very numerous, with a minute plate in the centre/' The ' Proceedings of the Zoological So- ciety of London ' for 1858 contain an elaborate mono- graph on the recent Caddce by Dr. P. Carpenter. Fossil species occur in the Eocene and Pliocene strata of this country and Italy.
* A blind gut.
CECUM. 7.")
In his ' History of British Animals ' Fleming placed these shells in Orthocera (Orthoceras, a genus of fossil testaceous Cephalopoda), along with recent Foraminifera; and he thus drew on himself from Philippi perhaps the most severe reproof that could be administered to a naturalist, in the comment " horribile dictu." The censor himself classed them among the Pteropods ! Montagu called the adult Dentalium, and the young Vermiculum ; Brown gave the name of Brochus to the former, and Cornuoides to the latter. Other synonyms are Odou- tina, Zborzewsky, Odontostoma, Cantraine, Odontidium, Philippi, Corniculina, Minister, and Dentaliopsis, Clark. The fry constitute Costa's genus Spirolidium.
A. Solid and ringed ; operculum flat. 1. Cecum trachea * Montagu.
Dentalium Trachea, Mont. Test. Br. p. 497, t. 14. f. 10. C. trachea, F. & H. iii. p. 178, pi. Ixix. f. 4, and (animal) pi. KK. f. 1, a-c.
Body white, minutely grained, with two frosted, pale-yellow- ish-white contiguous raised lines on the upper part, forming a canal or groove, the points of which terminate anteriorly at the immediate base of the eyes, and posteriorly at the furthest end of the neck : mantle very thick and fleshy : neck slender, ridged lengthwise : snout long, flat, and cloven, witji fine, close, contractile annular ridges ; it is always in advance of the foot, and appears to assist in locomotion : tentacles frosted-white, rather long, divergent, at the extremities thickened, setose, and slightly clavate : eyes very minute and black ; they " have decidedly an external bias " (relatively to the position of the tentacles) : foot narrow, truncated in front when in .action, sloping behind to an obtusely pointed or rather a rounded ter- mination. (Clark.)
Shell of nearly equal breadth throughout, solid, opaque, and somewhat glossy : sculpture, numerous fine, regular, and
* From its being marked with rings like a windpipe ; the Latin word is properly trachia.
E 2
76 VERMETID^E.
flattened concentric ring-like ribs, which are packed so closely as to allow very little space between them ; they are some- times arranged in joints or interrupted strangulations, denoting probably the limits of successive curtailment ; under a micro- scope the entire surface (especially the interstices of the ribs) is seen to be marked lengthwise by excessively minute and crowded striae : colour yellowish- or reddish-brown, occasionally variegated by circles of a darker hue : spire none in the adult, its place at the posterior extremity being closed by a solid shelly plug, which slopes from the ventral margin to a bluntly conical point on the opposite or dorsal side : month annular, slightly contracted, and strengthened by the last-formed rib : operculum brown or dark-horncolour, consisting of about a dozen gradually increasing whorls, defined by a narrow raised spiral line or suture ; they become less distinct towards the centre, which- is concave. L. 0*125. B. 0-033.
Habitat : Rather common in the coralline zone of Dorset,, Devon, and Cornwall; Sandwich (Walker); Guernsey (Barlee) ; Swansea, Tenby, and Barmouth (J. G. J.) ; Bantry Bay (Thompson and J. G. J.) ; Ar- ran Isle, co. Galway (Barlee) ; Clyde district (Norman and Robertson) . I do not consider it a British fossil ; for I believe the shells described and figured by Searles Wood from the Coralline Crag are not this species, but his C. mammillatum. Philippi, however, has given it as a Sicilian fossil, under the name of Odontidium rugulosum ; and Professor Homes includes it in his great work on the Miocene formation near Vienna. It inhabits the coast of Brittany, beyond low-water mark of spring- tides, according to Cailliaud ; Mf Andrew dredged it in 8 f. at Vigo ; and several authors have noticed it as Mediterranean (both on the European and African coasts) and Adriatic ; on sponges from the Archipelago (Bean); Canary Isles, 50 f. (Mf Andrew); Cuba (Philippi) .
Clark informs us that the animal is not at all shy, and that all the specimens which he examined had an ovary. He expressed some doubt whether the branchial
CECUM. i 7
apparatus consists of two plumes or one only. Young shells are more convex and tapering, and their mouth is bell- shaped. The fry is exceedingly curious. It is long and twisted, not unlike the horn of an antelope ; its posterior termination is formed of a minute coil of two whorls. The concentric ridges are then percep- tible towards the mouth only, and are very slight ; the rest of the shell is quite smooth and glossy. I am in- debted to the Marquis James Doria for baby specimens which he dredged at Spezzia.
This is the Dentalium imperforatum of Adams ' On the Microscope ' (from Walker's figure) , as well as of Montagu who described the young as D. trachea ; but the latter specific name is now generally used. Brown called it Brochus striatus and B. trachiformis ; Cailliaud spelt the name C. trachcea. The fry is Costa's Spiroli- dium Mediterraneum.
Brochus annulatus and (young) B. reticulatus of Brown ("Loch Strangford ' ) is an exotic species. Dr. P. Carpenter found no less than 53 specimens of it by washing the common sponge of commerce from the West Indies ; and Mr. Bean has some from Aden. I mention this because C. annulatum has been noticed and figured in the ' British Mollusca ; on the authority of a specimen received by Mr. Alder from Mr. Clark. Flem- ing's description of his Orthocera trachea (Br. An. p. 237) evidently applies to the same foreign species.
B. Thin and smooth ; operculum, convex. Brocliina, Gray.
2. C. glabrum *, Montagu.
Dentalium glabrum, Mont. Test. Br. p. 497. C. glabrum, F. & II. iii. p. 181, pi. lxix. f. 5.
Body pure-white, with the lines forming the canal or groove
* Smooth.
78 VERMETID.E.
on the neck less conspicuous than in the other species : foot carried much more laterally. It is similar in other respects, taking into account the difference of size and greater delicacy of the present species. (Clark.)
Shell of nearly equal breadth throughout, not quite so much curved as in C. trachea, rather thin, transparent, and glossy : sculpture, none except under the microscope, which exhibits a slightly frosted appearance : colour clear-white : spire replaced by a rounded but not very convex shelly plug : mouth annular, thickened at its edge : operculum resembling an in- verted tea-cup without a handle, yellowish-brown, and consist- ing of about 10 regularly increasing whorls, 6 of which are raised, one above another (like circular steps), and are defined by a narrow spiral ridge ; they are distinct on the crown oi centre, which is depressed. L. 0-075. B. 0-0135.
Habitat : All our coasts, from Shetland to Guernsey, in the coralline zone ; common. Fossil in the Coralline Crag at Sutton (S. Wood) ; Norway, in newer or post- glacial deposits, 50-80 feet (Sars). Living in Norway (Lilljeborg) ; Mangerfiord, near Bergen, in 10-50 f. (Sars) ; Bohuslan, 10 f. (Malm) ; Danish coast (mns. Copenhagen) ; Brittany (Mace and Cailliaud) ; Provence (Forest, Martin, and Mace) ; Nice (Verany) ; Spezzia (Doria and J. G. J.) ; Canary Isles, 12-50 f. (Mf An- drew) .
" I thought the Caecum trachea very active, but it is far surpassed by this animal ; I put one of each in a watch-glass of sea-water, and with a camer's-hair brush gave them a fair start, but the little one beat its compe- titor hollow, and accomplished a space of 2 inches in 55 seconds ; thus affording a proof, even in the Mollusca, that Nature compensates for the small volume of the minute beings in giving them greater energy, vivacity, and quickness/' (Clark.) Half-grown shells are more slender and curved, with a proportionally wider mouth. The spire of the fry has two whorls — the inner one
TURRITELLID.E. 79
being sometimes broken off, so as to make the centre pervious.
This species may possibly have been the Dentalium mi- nutum of Linne, from Plancus. It is the Odontostoma Itevissima of Cantraine ; and it is the Brochus glabrus and B. Icevis of Brown, the young being his B. arcuatus, and the fry his Cornuoides major and C. minor. Adams (c On the Microscope ') named the last-mentioned state of growth Serpula incurvata; and Montagu called it (from another of Walker's figures, showing the centre whorl broken off) Vermiculum pervium. Sars does not believe the S. incurvata of Adams can be the young of C. glabrum, because he has found specimens of each equally large ; but it must be borne in mind that the adult are of different sizes, and that many species of mollusca have a dwarf or small variety. Besides, when the spire is truncated and gone, the shell becomes pro- portionally shorter, although it increases in diameter.
Family XIII. TURRITEL'LIDvE, Clark.
Body elongated : mantle forming a slight canal or fold in front : head snout-shaped : tentacles cylindrical : eyes outside the tentacles, at their base : foot short : gills consisting of a single plume. Hermaphrodite ?
Shell spiral and turreted, many-whorled, not umbilicate : spire tapering, with a blunt apex: mouth having a thin and flex^ious outer lip : operculum horny and circular.
The founder of this family afterwards sacrificed it by uniting it with Vermetidae. Most conchologists, how- ever, think they ought to be separate. The Turritellidce , in all probability, subsist on animal food.
80 TURRITELLID.E.
Genus TURRITEL'LA* Lamarck. PL II. f. 1 .
Body cylindrical : mantle fringed at its edge : snout short, contractile : tentacles separated by the snout : eyes placed on slight prominences : opercular lobe entire.
Shell pyramidal, spirally ridged or striated : spire having the top whorls, when disused, partitioned off by a solid hemi- spherical plug : mouth round, or inclining to square : operculum rather solid, with numerous whorls, the outermost of which overlap one another, or are imbricated, and all are finely puckered in an oblique direction ; nucleus central.
Old English naturalists called these shells " screws/5 Thev are not, like their human namesakes, confined to the civilized part of the globe, but are met with everywhere, in great variety. The species are numerous and prolific, inhabiting the coralline and deep-sea zones.
In a fossil state thev have been found in formations certainly as far back as the Greensand. Our common species is either very shy or very sluggish; it rarely shows more than its foot and the tips of its tentacles. I have been obliged to deprive it of the greater part of its shell in order to examine the soft parts. The lingual membrane is minute : each row of teeth consists of a broad central plate or rhachis, flanked on either side by three narrow and incurved pleurse.
Turritella has several obsolete synonyms.
Turritella te'rebra f, Linne.
Turbo terebra, Linn. S. N. p. 1239. Turritella communis, F. & H. iii. p. 172, pi. lxxxix. f. 1-3, and (animal) pi. II. f. 4.
Body yellowish, mottled with brown and speckled with white : mantle thick, fringed on its outer and inner edges with fine filaments [arranged in a triple row, and reflected (Loven)]: snout broad, depressed, bilobed towards the extremity, which is delicately scalloped round the margin [tuberculated at the
* A diminutive from furris, a tower. t A borer.
TURRITELLA. 81
edge (Loven)] : tentacles conical, pointed, slender, and variable in length : eyes small, on bulbs or offsets at the outer base of the tentacles : foot lanceolate, dilated and rounded in front, bluntly angulated and abruptly terminating behind [" grooved below " (F. & H.); sole marked on its hinder portion with a depressed line down the centre (Clark)].
Shell forming a slender and elongated pyramid, with a more or less narrow base which is somewhat angulated ; it is solid, opaque, and of a dull hue : sculpture, rather sharp spiral ridges, of which there are 3 on each of the upper whorls, and double that number on the last whorl, besides several intermediate and smaller ribs on the lower whorls, and sometimes also on the upper ones ; the whole surface is covered with fine and close- set indistinct flexuous striae in the line of growth : colour yellowish-brown of various shades, with occasionally darker longitudinal streaks : spire sharply pointed, although the tip is usually broken off: whorls 16-20, convex but compressed, shelving above and below the suture ; they increase very gradually : suture distinct, becoming deeper towards the base of the spire : mouth squarish, angulated above and slightly ex- panding below: outer lip incurved, on the upper side: inner lip reflected over the pillar, and in adult specimens united with the outer lip : operculum dark-horncolour with a tawny coating, composed of about 30 imbricated turns, which are invested with minute and delicate tuberculated threads arranged obliquely and sometimes projecting beyond the margin so as to make it appear spinous; the centre is slightly concave. L. 2-25. B. 0-05.
Yar. 1. nivea. Snowy-white.
Yar. 2. gracilis. Narrower and more slender.
Habitat : Sand and mud in 3-100 f., throughout our seas ; gregarious. The 1st variety is not uncommon on the west coast of Scotland and in Shetland, mixed with coloured specimens : I have also dredged it at Exmouth. The 2nd variety is local, and occasionally white ; it has been taken at Torquay with the ordinary kind by Mr. Alder, in Shetland by Mr. M' Andrew and others, in Cork Harbour by Mr. Humphreys, and in Bantry Bay by myself. The latter variety also occurs on the coasts
e 5
82 TURRITELLID.E.
of Spain and Portugal, and in the Mediterranean. If it had not been for an intermediate form which Mr. Barlee obtained near the Arran Isles in the west of Ireland, I should have been inclined to consider this variety a distinct species. Deshayes refers it to the T. cornea of Lamarck ; but the description, " point de stries," is surely inapplicable to our shell. Plate 449 of the ' En- cyclopedic Methodique/ cited by Lamarck, represents likewise a smooth shell. T, terebra abounds in almost every newer tertiary and quaternary deposit here and abroad, occasionally at great heights, as on Moel Try- faen ; of which we have accounts from many a concho-
logist
" And him that vexed his brain, and theories built Of gossamer upon the brittle winds, Perplexed exceedingly why shells were found Upon the mountain-tops, but wondering not Why shells were found at all, more wondrous still ! "
It inhabits a considerable part of the European seas, from the LofFoden Isles to the iEgean and the African shores of the Mediterranean, at depths varying from 5 to 100 f.
The " Auger " of Pennant. It sometimes attains the length of 3 inches. In aged specimens the outer lip is very thick, being formed of numerous layers. The whorls are sometimes flattened, or scalariform.
This common species was described and figured as English by Lister, whom Linne quotes for it in the 1 Fauna Suecica ; ' and that work is cited in his c Sys- tema Naturae/ where Turbo terebra was first named, with " Habitat in O. Europseo." No such references are given in Linne' s description of Turbo ungulinus, which mav therefore have been exotic. Our shell was called by Risso not only Turritella communis, but T. striatula and by many other names. It is the T. Linncei
TRUNCATELLID.E. 83
of Deshayes : the fry was probably Adams's Turbo strigatus.
Turbo duplicatus of Linne, as well as his T. imbricatus and T. exoletus (the last being T. ductus of Da Costa) are tropical species of Turritella ; they were erroneously introduced by Lister, Leach, Da Costa, and Montagu into the list of British shells.
Two arctic species of the present or an allied genus occur in our glacial formation, viz. : — T.polaris of Beck = T. erosa, Couthouy, at Bridlington (Woodward), and Elie in Fife (Rev. Thomas Brown, fide Geikie) ; and T. reticulata of Mighels and Adams = T. lactea, Mtiller, at King Edward in Aberdeenshire ( Jamieson) . The former of these has also been found in a fossil state by Mr. Searles Wood in the Coralline Crag at Sutton, and by Principal Dawson in Canada.
Family XIV. TRUNCATE L'LID^, Gray.
Body elongated : mantle plain-edged : head forming a cylin- drical, contractile, and bilobed snout : tentacles conical, sepa- rated by the snout : eyes sessile, or nearly so, placed a little above (rather than outside) the bases of the tentacles : foot short, and rounded at each end : gills consisting of a single plume.
Shell cylindrical : spire truncated on the animal arriving at maturity, the opening thus made being filled up with a fresh layer of shell : mouth oval, with a complete peristome : oper- culum horny, ear-shaped, with a very short spire, having its nucleus on the columellar or inner side of the mouth, near the base of the shell.
There is a great gulf between this family and the Tur- ritellida?. Perhaps it is owing to a fault in the system of classification — our motto being " nil deest nisi clavis ''
8-1 TRUNCATELLIDJE.
(as in the mysterious frontispiece that represents the Domns Natures in ' Ripley revived/ by Eirenaeus Phi- lalethcs) ; or perhaps the intermediate space is occu- pied by exotic and fossil forms. At any rate I can place the Truncatellidce nowhere else. The European seas have only a single generic and specific representative, which appears not to be found north of the English Channel.
Genus TRUNCATEL'LA* Risso. PL II. f. 2. Generic characters those of the family.
The habits of these mollusks are littoral. They live chiefly on the brink of high-water mark, under stones and decaying sea-weeds, which are periodically covered by the sea ; and in this sense they may be termed am- phibious. Considerable doubt has been entertained by many naturalists whether Truncatella is marine or ter- restrial, and whether it is furnished with gills like Lit- torina, or with an air-pouch like Melampus. The careful and long- continued experiments made by the Rev. R. T. Lowe, which were published in the 5th volume of the 1 Zoological Journal/ seem to prove that it is truly marine, one of his specimens having lived 14 weeks constantlv immersed in sea-water : and Mr. Clark has given us full particulars of the branchial apparatus.
Lowe proposed at one time to call this genus Erjjeto- metra (from its peculiar mode of creeping) ; Christo- phori and Jan have given it the name of Choristoma, Leach those of Zeano'e, Glaucotho'e, and (according to Gray) Truncatula ; the young constitutes the genus Fidelis of Risso.
* Diminutive from truncatus, cut off.
TRUNCATELLA. 85
Truncatella trtjxca'tula *, Draparnaud.
Cyclostoma tricacatuhim, Drap. Tabl. Moll. p. 115. T. Montagui, F. & H. iii. p. 317, pi. xcix. f. 1, and (animal) pi. FF. f. 10.
Body very pale yellowish -white, with grey specks : snout long, narrow, and very extensile, annnlated when at rest, auricled at each end ; it is finely grooved down the middle : tentacles short, broad, flat, and somewhat triangular : eyes black, with white pupils, on expansions of the tentacles : foot roundish- oval and thick.
Shell forming a short and turreted cylinder, nearly equal in breadth throughout ; it is rather thin, semi transparent, and glossy : sculpture sometimes none, in other specimens more or less distinct and strong longitudinal ribs on all or part of the whorls ; under a good magnifier may also be detected faint traces of spiral and close-set stria? : colour pale yellowish-brown or tawny, with a creamy tint : spire having an extremely blunt tip in the young, and abruptly truncated in the adult ; the line of fracture where the first-formed whorls wore rubbed off is conspicuous : whorls 6| in the young, and 3| only in the adult ; although rounded they are compressed, especially in the middle of each, and increase very gradually, the penulti- mate whorl being in fact a trifle broader than the last ; the original whorls are fragile, and (like the milk-teeth of certain Mammalia) deciduous at the proper season : suture deep : mouth small in comparison with the size of the last whorl ; it is somewhat contracted above, rounded and expanded below : outer Up reflected, and not very thin : inner tip thickened in full-grown specimens, and a little detached from the pillar ; there is no chink behind it. much less an umbilicus : operculum thin, yellowish, marked with slight flexuous stria) in the line of growth. L. 0-175. B. 0-06.
Habitat : Muddy shores near high-water mark, under stones, at Southampton, and at Salcombe, Plymouth, and in other parts of South Devon (Montagu) ; Weymouth (Bryer and others) ; Poole (Maton and Rackett) ; New- haven (J. G. J.) • Guernsey (Lukis) . It is rather plentiful in the backwater behind Portland Island.
,* Having a small truncation.
86 trtjncatellidjE.
Laskey says that lie dredged it off Dunbar, Fleming that he found a specimen in the cavity of a dead Spa- tangus purpureus from the Firth of Forth, Macgillivray that it has been taken in sea-sand from Cruden in the Moray Firth, and Thompson that Mrs. Hancock obtained a young shell of this species at Bundoran in co. Donegal ; Bean enumerates it in his list of Scarborough shells. I suspect that there has been some mistake as to the specimens from all these last five places. A large West- Indian species (T. succinea, C. B. Adams) has been often mistaken for ours. Philippi records the present species as fossil in Sicily ; and I found specimens in a quaternary or more recent deposit near Martigues in the Departement of Bouches-du- Rhone. It inhabits the Atlantic shores of France, both sides of the Mediter- ranean, as well as the Adriatic and iEgean seas ; and M.' Andrew has noticed it at Malaga and Lancerote.
It creeps slowly, in the fashion of a caterpillar. The action of the foot is thus described by Clark : — ' ' on the march maintaining posteally and anteally the oval con- tour, with a vermicular motion, like an advance of one half to the other ; this action gives an apparent crease, simulating an incised transverse line, but on the step being completed, the foot becomes entire." I could not detect any pulsation : the gill-pouch was transparent, and appeared to be filled with air. The shell varies considerably in bulk. Possibly the smooth kind, which is smaller than the other, may be the male, and the ribbed kind the female; the transition from one kind to the other, however, is very gradual.
Helix subcylindrica of Linne may be this species ; but " Habitat in aquis dulcibus Europse borealis " makes it rather doubtful. Montagu called the adult shell Turbo truncatus, and the young T. subtruncatus ; Risso
SCALARIID.E. 87
distinguished the smooth and ribbed forms as Trunca- tella laevigata and T. costulata, and the young as Fidelis Theresa. The last appears to be the T. Desnoyersii of Payraudeau. Lowe gave this species the name of T. Montagui, his T. truncatula from [Madeira being diffe- rent. The young is Macgillivray's Eulima nitidissima. According to Philippi our shell is Cyclostoma continuum of Scacchi, and the young is Paludina strigilata of Pareyss. The corresponding name for each state of growth bestowed by Leach on this polyonomatous shell are Zeano'e nitida and Glaucotho'e Montaguana. Dra- parnaud, in his ' Tableau des Mollusques/ expressed his belief that his Cyclostoma truncatulum ought to consti- tute a distinct genus, an opinion of which Risso un- skilfully availed himself.
Family XV. SCALARI'ID^E, (Scalaridce)
Broderip.
Genus SCALA'RIA * Lamarck. PL II. f. 3.
Body screw-shaped : mantle plain-edged, forming an inci- pient or slight fold at the base of the shell : head short, snout- shaped, furnished with a cylindrical and retractile proboscis : tentacles awl-shaped, with blunt tips : eyes on short stalks, at the outer bases of the tentacles : foot lanceolate, double-edged in front; sole grooved down the middle: gills consisting of a single plume. Sexes separate.
Shell turreted, longitudinally ridged or plaited, and often also transversely striated : spire elongated and pointed ; apex slightly inflected : mouth nearly round, with a complete and thickened peristome, angulated below : operculum horny, ear- shaped, few-whorled, and having the nucleus on the columellar or inner side of the mouth but not far from its centre.
* From scala, a ladder.
88 scalariid^e. -
In this family and genus occurs for the first time a retractile proboscis or " haustellum/' instead of a con- tractile snout or "rostrum/' Morch* suggests that there may be no greater difference between these tAvo organs than between a long and a short siphon. The ar- mature of the tongue is very simple, and consists of a single row of uniform teeth on each side without any in the middle ; it agrees nearly with that of Homalogyra and the Bulla tribe. Without presuming to disparage the labours of those conchologists who may be termed odontological systematists, I think an undue importance has been given to this character as a basis of classifica- tion for the Gastropoda. The alimentary and masti- cating organs of all animals depend on the nature of their food ; and every division of the Gastropoda con- tains some kinds which are phytophagous and others which are sarcophagous or zoophagous. Scalaria be- longs to the latter class. According to Dr. Gould, a specimen of S. Grcenlandica which Mr. Couthouy kept alive for the purpose of examination "fed eagerly upon fresh beef, especially if somewhat macerated." The animal of every species of Scalaria emits a purple dye, like Planorbis corneus, Ianthina, and Aplysia. The use of this secretion is not sufficiently known f. Montagu made some curious experiments with the dye of S. com- munis, showing that the colour is changed by the appli- cation of mineral acids, and that it is not affected by cream of tartar, nor materially by either volatile or fixed alkali; that it is not diminished by putrefaction, nor fixable by any then known astringent ; it resisted for some months the action of the air and sun • but being exposed for a whole summer to the solar rays in a south
* Ann. & Mag. N. H. 3rd ser. xvi. p. 397.
t See vol. i. (Introduction) pp. xxxv and xxxvi.
SCALARIA. 89
aspect, it almost vanished. Ever since the cultivation of conchology (in the limited sense of the word and not as a science), the true " wentletrap " or " windeltreppe " has been regarded as an object of especial , admiration for its graceful shape and exquisite sculpture ; it fetched at one time as high a price as some of the rarest cones and cowries, which (in my opinion) it far excels in beautv. Lamarck states that the ridges which adorn the shell are marks of growth, each forming in succes- sion the border of the mouth. This is probably the case, if we consider them marks of periodical rather than annual growth : a full-grown S. communis has about 100 of these ridges, and we can hardly suppose that it lives as many years. The number of varices or stronger ridges, distributed at intervals and observable in S. Tur- tonce and other species, may indicate the age. Scalari<e inhabit every sea, although frequenting more the Indian Ocean. About 200 species have been described, recent and fossil. We are told by Nyst that many of the latter occur in -the cretaceous and tertiary formations ; one has been recorded from the Coral Rag, and another as Silurian.
Among the synonyms are Scala of Klein (pre-Lin- nean), Scalarus of Montfort, and Clathrus of Oken.
1. Scalaria Tub/ton,*:"*, [Turtonis) Turton.
Turbo Turtonis, Turt. Conch. Diet. p. 208, f. 97. S. Turtonis, F. & H. iii. p. 204, pi. kx. f. 1, 2.
Body dark-coloured : proboscis long : eyes placed on promi- nent tubercles : foot white behind and underneath, folded in front when withdrawn into the shell. (Bixona, Jicle Philippi).
Shell slender, solid, opaque, somewhat glossy : sculpture, slightly curved, flattened, and more or less imbricated longi-
* Earned after a daughter of Dr. Turton.
90 SCALAR1ID.E.
tudinal ridges, 12 being on the last whorl, 11 on the penulti- mate, and 10 on the next, after which they diminish in number; these ridges are broader and foliaceous at the top of each whorl ; they are not continuous throughout the spire, but are usually disposed in alternate order, and some of them, at irregular intervals, are double or multiple, so as to form broad and strong varices ; the interstices of the ribs are finely and closely stri- ated in a spiral direction : colour light yellowish-brown, with 3 purplish-brown or coffeecoloured bands on the body-whorl and 2 on each of the other whorls ; of the 3 bands the upper two are above the periphery and sometimes confluent, the third (which is generally broader) encircling the base : spire tapering gradually' to a fine point: whorls 15-16, rounded, although compressed, and increasing very gradually : suture well defined, but not deep : mouth more round than oval, angulated above, and much more so below : outer lip encircled or strengthened by the last-formed ridge, having a slight sinus near the upper part, and somewhat reflected : inner lip broad, extremely thick at the base and lower angle of the mouth ; there is no umbi- licus behind it : operculum dark-horncolour, having about 6 turns, rather concave, and strongly striated in the line of growth ; it resembles that of a Littorina, but the nucleus is more central. L. 1-75. B. 0-5.
Habitat : Coralline zone in Guernsey (Lukis) ; Devon and Cornwall (Turton and others) ; Tenby (J. G. J.) ; Laugharne, Carmarthenshire (Barlee, and Lindsay) ; estuary of the Mersey (Collingwood) ; Scarborough (Bean and Leckenby) ; Aberdeen (Macgillivray) ; Clyde district (Forbes and others) ; co. Down (Thompson) ; Dublin Bay (Turton and others); south of Ireland (Ball and others) ; co. Galway (Barlee) . It is by no means common. Dr. Turton states that " in many parts of Ireland, but especially about Balbriggan, they are found crawling among the rocks " ! In a fossil state this species has been recorded from the Belfast deposit by Hyndman and Grainger, under the name of S. Tre- velyana-, Ireland, Ayr, and Bute (Smith); Nice (Risso); Sicily (Philippi) . It inhabits the North Atlantic from
SCALARIA. 91
Bergen (Loven and others) to Madeira (Mf Andrew) , and every part of the Mediterranean, Adriatic, and ^Egean, at depths ranging between 5 and 45 f.
Several specimens having the operculum were in Mr. Clark's collection, from Exmouth : I wish he had given us an account of the animal. Young shells have the base somewhat angulated.
It was possibly the Turbo ambiguus of Linne, described as inhabiting the Mediterranean, and very like T. cla- thrus (but fleshcolour, with 3 reddish-brown bands, and having twice as many ribs) ; this, however, is said to be umbilicate, a character that belongs to none of the European species. Risso appears to have given our shell the specific names of Turtonia and (as fossil) elegans, Michaud that of tenuicosta, Bivona planicosta, Scacchi plicata, Broun alternicosta, and Leach Turtoniana.
2. S. commu'nis*, Lamarck.
S. communis, Lam. An. s. Yert. vi. (2) p. 228 ; F. & H. in. p. 206, pi. lxx. F. 9, 10.
Body milk-white, irregularly streaked with black or mottled with dark-purple on the upper part : mantle thick, tight about the neck, its margin forming a round collar: snout vertically cloven in the centre, whence the proboscis (which is white) frequently protrudes as if in search of food : tentacles long and slender [black, Alder] : eyes on the inner side of small bulbs or excrescences [white spaces, Alder], which rise from the outer bases of the tentacles : foot, when fully extended, long and narrow, somewhat angulated and notched or bilobed in front, with a very slight rounded auricle at each corner, and tapering behind to a point ; it is often carried far beyond the head ; sole marked in the middle from one end to the other with a groove or impressed line. [Male organ long, bent, and pointed, of a dusky hue (Clark).]
Shell more conical than the last species, solid, opaque, and of rather a dull hue : sculpture, slightly curved longitudinal
* Common.
92 scalariid^e.
ridges, which are reflected o*r folded backwards, but not flat- tened as in S. Turtoace ; there are 9 on the last whorl, 10 on the penultimate, and 8 on the next, diminishing in number towards the apex ; the ridges are somewhat broader at the top of each whorl, and cemented to those in the preceding whorl, so as to make the series continuous in an oblique direction ; they do not (unless very rarely) form varices, nor is one larger than any of the others except in the course of growth ; under a good magnifying-power their interstices are seen to be some- times marked with a few extremely slight and indistinct spiral striae, and occasionally also with delicate and close-set longi- tudinal striae or impressed lines, which latter especially cover the ridges ; the first 3 or 4 whorls are quite smooth : colour varying from cream to fawn, with frequently (as in rJ. Turtonce) 3 purplish-brown or coffeecoloured bands on the body-whorl, and 2 on each of the other whorls ; these bands, however, are not continuous, but broken and divided into short streaks ; sometimes the shell is beautifully mottled all over with pur- plish-brown, although retaining the lowest band; apex light- brown : spire rather abruptly tapering to an apparently fine point ; apex flattened, slightly reversed or inflected, but not so decidedly as in the genus Aclis: ivhorlslo-16, convex, gradually enlarging : suture deep : mouth more round than oval, more or less angulated above and below : outer lip encircled and strengthened by the last-formed ridge, somewhat reflected: inner lip broad, extremely thick at the base and lower angle of the mouth ; no umbilicus : operculum dark-horncolour, having about 6 turns, concave in the middle, and marked with coarse flexuous striae in the line of growth. L. 1*5. B. 0*6.
Habitat : English, Bristol, and St. George's Chan- nels j all the coasts of Ireland ; Kent (Montagu and others); Dogger bank (Rich); Scarborough (Leckenby); Leith (Da Costa) ; Dunbar (Laskey) ; Clyde district (Hennedy and others) . It is usually an inhabitant of the coralline zone ; but Mr. Sturges-Dodd found living specimens at very low tides in Pontac Bay, Jersey. Es- tuarine deposit at Selsea, Sussex (Godwin- Austen) ; Ire- land (Smith) ; post-glacial bed in Norway, 50 feet (Sars) ; North Italian tertiaries (Brocchi) ; Sicily (Phi- lippi). Its foreign range, as recent, extends from Fin-
SCALARIA. 93
mark (Lilljeborg) to the Canary Isles (M' Andrew) in the North Atlantic, as well as throughout the Mediter- ranean, Adriatic, and iEgean. The depths given by different authors varv from 8-40 f. : and Mr. Mf An- drew found this species alive on the shore at Vigo and Gibraltar.
Montagu says that the purple dye issues from a gland behind the head : the great beauty of its colour was first noticed by Plancus in Mediterranean specimens. The shell is the " small stair-case " of Petiver, " bastaard wenteltrapje" of the Dutch according to Klein, " barred wreath " of Pennant, and u false wentletrap" of Da Costa, the " true wentletrap ** being S. scalaris or pretiosa. Our shell barely exceeds 2 inches in length.
It is the Turbo clathrus of the 10th and previous edi- tions of the ' Systema Naturae/ as well as of the ' Fauna Suecica ; 3 but the species so named in the 12th edition of the ' Systema' is described as having the base encircled by a spiral keel or ridge, and is consequently not the British species. Da Costa called it Strombiformis clathratus, ap- parently from a habit, in which he indulged with a most inconvenient pertinacity, of substituting new names for old \ the latter specific name, not having been adopted by any subsequent writer, must be considered obsolete. Gmelin and Mohr evidently mistook the Turbo clathrus of Linne for his T. clathratus, which is a Trophon.
3. S. Trevelya'na*, Leach.
S. Trevelyana, (Leach, M.S.) Winch, on the Geology of Lindisfarn, Ann. Phil, new ser. iv. p. 434 ; F. & H. iii. p. 213, pi. lxx. f. 7, 8, and (animal) pi. FF. f. 1-3.
Body yellowish-grey or pale-fawncolour, with a faint tinge of purple, minutely streaked and speckled with white : snout
* Named in honour of the discoverer, Miss Emma Trevelyan.
94 SCALARIIDiE.
broad and semicylindrical, slightly cloven in the middle, and delicately stippled with brown : tentacles gradually tapering, although rather short, margined on each side with a purplish- brown line, and streaked with white underneath : eyes small, round, and black, immersed in bulgings at the outer bases of the tentacles : foot very long and slender, extending far be- yond the head, in front somewhat rounded and with small an- gular corners, bilobed behind ; on the upper side a long fur- row runs from the hinder edge of the operculum to the tail, as in Trochus, with a well-defined ridge on each side of it.
Shell conical and of about the same proportions as S. com- munis, much thinner than that or the preceding species, opaque, somewhat glossy : sculpture, longitudinal ridges, arranged usually in continuous but oblique rows, as in J8. communis ; they are, however, narrower, less folded, and more flattened, and are occasionally varicose ; the upper part of each ridge is broader and generally (especially towards the point of the spire) expands into a short spur-like projection, so as to give a turreted appearance to the shell ; there are 14 ridges on each of the last two whorls, 13 on the next, diminishing in number upwards ; the interstices of the ridges are delicately and mi- croscopically striated in a spiral direction ; the first 4 or 5 whorls are smooth and polished : colour fawn ; the ridges are white : spire tapering to an apparently fine point ; apex as in the last species : wliorls 14-15, convex, increasing gradually : suture deep : mouth considerably more angulated below than above, the pillar being somewhat strait, especially in the young : outer lip thick, formed of the last ridge : inner Up rather thin above, and less connected than usual with the outer lip, thickened and broad below ; behind it is a depres- sion, but no umbilicus : operculum light-horncolour, having about 6 turns, the inner ones being defined by a slightly raised edge ; it is concave in the middle, and marked with coarse flexuous strisG in the line of growth. L. 1. B. 0-4.
Habitat : Shetland, in 75-100 f. (M'Andrew and others) ; Orkneys, 15-100 f. (Thomas) ; Moray Firth (Gordon) ; Firth of Forth (Gerard) ; northern coasts of England, from Berwick to Scarborough (Johnston and others) ; Macgilligan, co. Londonderry (Thompson); co. Cork (Humphreys and Wright); off Mizen Head and Cape Clear in 50-60 i., and on the Nymph bank
SCALARIA. 95
in 50-55 f. (M'Andrew) ; Arran I., co. Galway (Barlee) ; Tenby (Lyons) ; Laugharne, Carmarthenshire (Lind- say) ; Plymouth (Jordan) j Hayle (Miss Hockin) ; 15 miles from the Land's End in 50 f. (Mf Andrew, fide Forbes) . Norwich Crag ( Wigham, Thomas, and Wood- ward); Red Crag (S. Wood). It has been dredged off Christiansnnd in 60 f. by Danielssen, and in 40-50 f. by Sars, in Christianiafiord by Asbjomsen, off Bohuslan by Loven, and in 40-80 f. by Malm, and in the Kattegat, with Crania anomala, by the last-named writer ; Tiberi procured it in an immature state from coral-fishers at Naples.
The animal is extremely shy ; it takes alarm and shuts itself up, even when you touch the table on which the vessel containing it stands. Like its congeners it emits a purple dye. The denticles of the tongue are slender and curved. The shell may be distinguished from that of S. Turtona by its smaller size, greater delicacy of texture, finer and more numerous ribs (each of which is generally furnished on the upper part with a short spur) , and by its pretty fawn- or fleshcolour variegated by white ribs. My* largest specimen is not much more than 1^ inch long. Some are more elongated than others; those from Ireland have a broader base and faint traces of bands, disposed as in the preceding two species, but of the same colour as the body of the shell, although of a somewhat darker hue. Distortions occur in which the spire is more or less bent ; and one has a distinct but narrow umbilicus.
This species was first described by Dr. Johnston, in the Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club for 1841. In Thorpe's (or Hanley's) ' British Marine Conchology ' the specific name is spelt Treveliana. S. frondicula of Searles Wood, from the English and
96 SCALARIIDJE.
Belgian Crag formations, is closely allied to it, if not the same shell.
4. S. clathra'tula*, Adams.
Turbo clathratulus, Ad. Micr. t. 14. f. 19. 8. clathratula, F. & H. iii. p. 209, pi. lxx. f. 3, 4.
Body clear- white, with a very faint dusky tinge on the upper part, and thickly interspersed with minute opaque- white flakes : mantle fleshy, even with the mouth of the shell ; snout very short, compressed and crescent-shaped : prohoscis long and strong, frequently protruded : tentacles of moderate length, and divergent : eyes very black, placed not on offsets, but on scarcely raised eminences at the outer bases of the ten- tacles, of which they form part : foot often carried considerably in advance of the head and tentacles ; it is short, narrow, in front nearly semicircular and with a minute auricle at each corner, and tapers gradually behind to a slender rounded termi- nation ; hinder half of the sole deeply grooved in the middle lengthwise, with a depression in the centre. (Clark and Alder.)
Shell elegantly pyramidal, rather thin, semitransparent, and glossy: sculpture, fine, sharp, laminar, erect, and curved longitudinal ridges, set rather obliquely, either in a continuous or alternate order ; each is nearly of the same height and size throughout, and very seldom are any of them varicose ; there are 18 on each of the last two whorls, and 16 or 1 7 on the next, diminishing in number upwards ; their interstices are spirally but indistinctly and irregularly striated, as in the other species, and on the upper part of the body- whorl some fine longitudinal strise may occasionally be observed ; the first 3 or 4 whorls are smooth and polished : colour uniform, snow- white : spire finely tapering ; apex like that of the other species : whorls 12-13, convex, gradually enlarging : suture deep : mouth inclining to oval, decidedly angulated below: outer Up incurved above, and slightly expanding : inner lip reflected, especially at the base : operculum yellowish -brown, having from 4 to 5 turns, concave in the middle, and marked with strong flexuous striae in the line of growth. L. 0*6. B. 0*02.
Habitat : Sparingly distributed throughout all our seas, from the Shetland to the Channel Isles. It pro-
* Small-barred: diminutive of clathrata, from the Linnean specific name clathrus.
SCALARIA. 97
perly belongs to the coralline zone ; but Mr. Clark found a living specimen " in the middle of the littoral district, at the roots of the Corallina officinalis, at Exmouth." Mr. Humphreys took a dead one from the stomach of a Red Gurnard at Cork. Fossil in the Coralline Crag, Sutton (S. Wood); Belgian Crag (Nyst). Professor Homes has described and figured a miocene species, from the Vienna basin, under the name of S. clathratula, supposing it to be our species ; I regard them as distinct. The only foreign locality known to me, north of Great Britain, is Bolmslan, where Malm dredged it in 70 f. It inhabits the coasts of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Algeria, at depths ranging from 4 to 36 f.
aThis creature is very free in showing its peculia- rities w (Clark) . He noticed the usual purpuriferous vein behind the neck. According to him the operculum is white : in a specimen from his collection the colour of that appendage is yellowish-brown. The shell is a most graceful object.
It appears to be the Turbo lamellosus of Delle Chiaje, S. pulchella of Bivona, and S. Georgeiina of Kiener.
Mr. Mf Andrew dredged two fragments of S. Grcenlan- dica in 38 f. off Duncansbv Head in the north of Scot- land. Although these fragments have every appearance of being recent, I must request the reader to bear in mind the remarks which I made in the Introduction to vol. i. (pp. xciv-xcvi) with respect to the difficulty of distinguishing fossil from recent shells procured under similar circumstances. Not more than 30 miles below Duncansby Head Mr. Robert Dawson traced a newei tertiary deposit of great extent, containing Pecten Is- landicus and other arctic species. S. Groenlandica is not uncommon in the high northern seas of both hemi- spheres, its southern limit in Europe being Bergen. It
VOL. IV. f
98 PYRAMIDELLID^.
occurs in the glacial or post-glacial beds of Aberdeen- shire (Jamieson), at Bridlington (Forbes), as well as in the Norwich and Red Crag. The shell has remarkably strong and conspicuous spiral striae between the ridges, and its base is encircled by a keel.
I have a specimen of S. pseudoscalaris, Brocchi, which the late Miss Lavars of Penzance picked up in Porth- curnow cove near the Land's End, together with S. Turtonce, S. communis, and S. clathratula. Its nearest ally is S. communis, from which it may be known by the more conical shape, sharper ridges, and basal keel or ridge. This species may be British ; for Tasle has re- corded it from Morbihan, and Aucapitaine and Fisher from the Charente-Inferieure.
Acirsa borealis of Beck has been dredged in 18-20 f. off the coast of Antrim by Mr. Hyndman, Mr. Waller, and myself, and on the Aberdeenshire coast, from 3 to 8 miles from land, in 30-45 f., by Mr. Dawson. This species has not been found living south of Iceland. It is the S. Eschrichti of Holboll (fide Moller), and Tur- ritella Hibernica of Waller. Morcli's genus Acirsa seems to connect the present family with the next.
Family XVI. PYRAMIDEL'LID^, Gray.
Body spirally twisted : head furnished with a long cylin- drical and retractile proboscis; flap ("raentum" of Loven) extensile, but rarely projecting beyond the foot : tentacles conical or triangular, flattened, and smooth, with more or less inflated tips : eyes sessile at the inner base of the tentacles, and placed near to each other : foot lanceolate, and double- edged in front. Branchial apparatus consisting of a single gill-plume. Tongue unarmed or toothless.
ACL1S. 99
Shell small, conical or pyramidal, smooth or variously sculp- tured : spire pointed, with an inflected and mostly a reversed apex : mouth oval, somewhat angulated but not channelled below: outer Up thin: operculum ear-shaped, with a short imperfect spire of very few whorls ; nucleus excentric, on the inner side near the base.
This family contains several genera, some of which (especially Odostomia) abound in prolific species. They are widely diffused over the present marine area of our globe, and appear to have had an equally extensive range in periods which we call geological. The Pyramidellida inhabit all the zones, and are probably sarcophagous, not zoophagous or predaceous. Their shells are grace- ful in shape, and often beautifully sculptured ; but, being minute, they can be appreciated by those only who have accustomed themselves to see
" Form in things which to the eye Half-read is but deformity — Grandeur in mean things and small, And Grod's great handiwork in all ! "
Although it does not appear that any direct obser- vations have been made as to the reproductive system of the PyramidellidcE, it may be inferred from an un- published drawing by Moller of the soft parts and oper- culum of Monoptygma albulum [Turbo albulus, Fabri- cius) , which is allied to Aclis and belongs to the present family, that the sexes are distinct. In that drawing (for a tracing of which I am indebted to Dr. Morch) the male organ is very conspicuous.
Genus I. ACLIS * Loven. PL II. f. 4.
Body slender : tentacles long, approximating at their bases : eyes placed rather more on the outer than the inner base of the tentacles.
* A small javelin.
f2
100 PYRAMIDELLID^E.
Shell elongated : mouth slightly expanded, and having a more or less complete peristome : pillar never furnished with anv fold or tooth.
Perhaps this is an ill-assorted genus. More infor- mation is desirable to clear up some doubts as to the organization of its component species.
Leach's genus Alvania, adopted by Searles Wood, subsequently to Loven's publication, for Aclis suprani- tida, comprised (according to Risso, who first described that genus on Leach's authority) only certain species of Rissoa. In Leach's own work the type of Alvania is R. striata.
1. Aclis u'nica*, Montagu.
Turbo unicus, Mont. Test. Br. p. 299, t. 12. f. 2. A. unica, F. & H. iii. p. 222, pi. xc. f. 4, 5.
Body clear-white, with very minute and close-set flaky specks : mantle furnished with a cylindrical filament (as in Rissoa) at the upper angle of the mouth of the shell : " muz- zle slender and rather long, having the first half from the neck, on its upper part, clothed with a very close tunic or tight overlay; the disk is smooth, compressed, bevelled to a fine edge, and almost circular, with a median vertical fissure on the under surface, in which I have often seen the delicate white corneous plates, jaws, and lingual riband : " tentacles moderately long, fiat, rounded or obtuse at the tips, quite smooth even under high magnifying powers, and divergent : eyes large and black, not on peduncles or prominences, but fixed each on the centre of the base of either tentacle, with very little external inclination, and widely apart ; on the march the eyes are usually carried within the margin of the shell : foot slender, greatly hollowed out in front, and deeply labiated, having distinct, long, arched linear auricles which play or vibrate when the animal is crawling, beneath [behind ?] which it is slightly constricted ; it terminates in a rounded, rather broad point ; no median line is apparent in any part of the sole : opercular lobe simple. (Clark.)
Shell needle-shaped, thin, semitransparent, somewhat
* Unparalleled.
ACLIS. 101
glossy: sculpture, numerous delicate and flexuous longitu- dinal ribs, crossed by as many fine spiral ridges or striaB, and producing by their mutual intersection an exquisitely reticu- lated appearance ; the ribs are usually stronger on the upper whorls ; apex smooth and polished : colour white, with a faint tinge of yellowish-brown in live or fresh specimens : spire elegantly tapering to a blunt point, which when viewed side- ways appears button-shaped, and projects a little beyond the succeeding part of the spire : if viewed from above it appears slightly inflected : whorls 9-10, moderately convex, and gra- dually increasing ; the first whorl and half of the next form the apex of the spire : suture deep, rather oblique : mouth exactly oval, effuse below : outer lip slightly flexuous, incurved above : inner lip thin, adhering to the pillar, connected with the outer lip at the upper corner ; there is no umbilicus, but the base is narrowly depressed behind the pillar [: operculum " light vellow and suboval, with distinct grossly spiral turns ' (Clark)]. L. 0-115. B. 0-02.
Habitat : Local in the littoral zone. I will enu- merate some of the places where this species lias been noticed : — Haroldswick Bay in Unst (Dawson) ; Moray Firth (Murray, fide Gordon) ; Hebrides (J. G. J.) ; Dunbar (Bingham, fide Brown) ; Lamias h (Lands- borough); Northumberland and Durham (Alder) ; Scar- borough (Bean and J. G. J.) ; Dublin Bay (Turton) ; Cork (J. G. J.); Sandwich (Walker and J. G. J.); Bar- mouth, Tenby, and coast of Gower (J. G. J.); Cornwall and Devon (Montagu and others) ; Guernsey (Barlee and J. G. J.) . Mr. Clark found the living specimen from which his description was taken in Littleham cove near Exmouth, at low-water mark, on the margin of a deep and quiet rock-pool, among debris of small decayed shells mixed with sand and mud that had an offensive odour. Loire-Inferieure (Cailliaud) ; Spezzia (J. G. J.) .
" This creature is not at all shy ; it remained lively for thirty-six hours, and gave every facility for good ex-
102 PYRAMIDELLID.E.
animation ; it readily creeps up the deepest glasses, and, however often brushed down, starts again with unabated vigour" (Clark).
It is the Turbo albidus of Adams's work on the Mi- croscope (from Walker's figure), and Turritella Clealan- diana of Leach. The latter writer was of opinion that " unicus is a very improper name for a species." Surely no shell has a better claim than the present to be con- sidered alone of its kind, or unparalleled, which is the the meaning of the name. It once belonged to the genus Turbo, afterwards to Turritella, then to Chemnitzia (or Odostomia) , since to Aclis, and it was last trans- ferred to Rissoa. Our dainty Ariel has long served many masters, and perhaps it is time that he should have his liberty. Should such an emancipation take place, and a new genus be required for the distinction of this unique species, Graphis might be a suitable name.
2. A. as'caris*, Turton.
Turbo ascaris, Turt. Conch. Diet. p. 217. A. ascaris, F. & H. iii. p. 219, pi. lxxxviii. f. 8.
Shell forming an elongated and slender cone, rather solid for its size, semitransparent, and somewhat glossy : sculpture, strong spiral ridges, of which there are 5 on the body-whorl, and three or four on each of the other whorls ; the uppermost ridge on each whorl is placed at some little distance from the suture ; the base of the shell is smooth ; some slight and fiex- uous longitudinal striae or wrinkles may be detected by using a Coddington lens : colour milk-white : spire tapering to ap- parently a fine point: whorls 8-9, convex in the middle, but com- pressed or sloping on the upper part of each towards the suture ; they enlarge rather suddenly : suture deep and rather oblique : mouth exactly oval, effuse below : outer lip slightly flexuous, incurved above, more or less thickened near the edge, so as occasionally to form a varix in an earlier stage of growth : inner lip somewhat thickened and adhering to the pillar, re-
* A tapeworm.
ACLIS. 103
fleeted near the base; it is imperfectly connected with the outer lip at the upper corner ; behind it is a small and nar- row umbilical chink. L. 0-1. B. 0-025.
Habitat : East Shetland, 82 f. (Mf Andrew) ; Aber- deenshire (Dawson); west coast of Scotland (Barlee); Scarborough (Bean) ; Barmouth, Tenby, and Ply- mouth (J. G. J.); Burrow Island (Beevor); Exmouth (Barlee); Bude (Lindsay); Guernsey (Lukis, Barlee, and J. G. J.) ; Dublin Bay (Warren and Alder) ; Bun- doran (Mrs. Hancock, fide Thompson); Arran Isle, co. Galway (Barlee) ; Sean eld, in the west of Ireland (Tur- ton) . Coralline Crag, Sutton, with A. supranitida (coll. Wood in mus. Brit.). Bergen (coll. Loven in mus. Stockh.), and in 70 f. (Lilljeborg) ; Quineville, near Cherbourg (Mace) ; Loire-Inferieure (Cailliaud) .
It appears to be the Pyramis acutissimus of Brown, "found on Belton sands, near Dunbar, by General
Bingham
y>
3. A. suprani'tida*, S. Wood.
Albania si'pranitida, S. "Wood, Cat. Crag Moll. Aclis supranitida, F. & H. iii. p. 320, pi. xc. f. 2, 3.
Body slender [" entirely white " (Hanley)] : head not beaked [not snout-shaped] : proboscis long, strong, and retractile : ten- tacles cylindrical, slender, somewhat inflated at the top, close together at the base [" subulate and truncated " (Hanley)] : eyes immersed at the base of the tentacles, and placed rather laterally [" placed far back, sessile, and rather distant " (Han- ley)] : foot having the "nientum" [or upper edge] somewhat detached, narrower than the sole, and extended [" tail simple and obtuse " (Hanley)] : opercular lobe ample, of a different shape on each side, being on the right larger and forming 3 or 4 folds, on the left produced into a single rounded lobe which is folded behind ; sole tongue -shaped, truncated in front : tongue unarmed ? (Loven.)
Shell ten times greater in bulk than A. ascaris, and other- wise differing from that species in not being so slender, and in
* Exceedingly glossy.
104 PYRAMIDELLID.E.
having a much broader base ; it is distinctly and deeply um- bilicate in every stage of growth ; sometimes there are 5 ridges on each whorl, at other times 3 only on the body-whorl and 2 on each of the other whorls, occasionally none on the body- whorl and 2 or 3 on each of the upper ones, or else there are no ridges at all and the whole surface is quite smooth and glossy ; the suture is more deeply excavated, and nearly straight ; this species has 12 whorls, and the mouth is more round than oval. L. 0-25. B. 0*1.
Habitat : Occasionally procured by dredging and trawling, as well as by examining drifted shell-sand, Aberdeenshire and the Hebrides (Dawson), Aberdeen (Macgillivray) , Blackpool (Kenyon), Belfast (Hynd- nian and Waller), Dublin Bay (J. G. J.), Bantry Bay (Miss Hutchings, fide Leach, and Hanley), Barmouth ( J. G. J.) , Tenby (Lyons and J. G. J.) , Langland Bay near Swansea (J.G. J.), Bude (Lindsay) , Land's End (Hockin), Falmouth (Cranch, fide Leach, and Hockin) , Plymouth (Prideaux, fide Leach, and J. G. J.), Hastings (Leach), and Guernsey (Hanley, Lukis, and J. G. J.). Coralline Crag (S.Wood). Bohuslan (Loven and Lilljeborg, and, in 12 f., Malm) ; Cattegat, 10-20 f. (Malm) ; Brittany (Tasle and Cailliaud); Yigo Bay,8f., and Madeira(Mf An- drew); Gulf of Lyons (Martin); Algeria (Weinkauff).
This shell is Brown's Turrit ell 'a minor, the type of which