484 GASTROPODA. [Pectinibranchia. 



convex, with a shallow blunt V-shaped sinus below the suture. Colu- 

 mella short and narrow, its point cut off with a very slight obliquity, 

 the edge blunt and very slightly twisted. Inner lip narrow, porcel- 

 lanous, running obliquely to the base. Operculum small, oval, smooth, 

 with terminal apex, brownish-yellow. (Watson.) 



Diameter, 5-75 mm. ; height, 13 mm. 



Animal unknown. 



Type in the British Museum. 



Hob. East of East Cape, in 700 fathoms (" Challenger "). 



Genus 4. BELA, Leach, in Gray, 1847. 

 Bela, Leach, P.Z.S., 1847, 134. Neotype : B. turricula, Montg. 



Shell fusiform or buccinoid ; spire more or less short, very often 

 shouldered. Protoconch paucispiral, with perfectly rounded nucleus ; 

 whorls convex or subangular, with curved costte and spiral lirse ; 

 aperture narrow, oval or subpyriform, terminated by a very short 

 nearly straight and widely open canal, its end attenuated, rounded, 

 not emarginate ; outer lip not very thick, sinuous, but very slightly 

 notched above, opposite the curve of the ribs, antecurrent and tangent 

 to the suture ; inner lip callous, smooth, moderately broad, narrowed 

 and subcarinated towards the canal. 



Distribution. Chiefly in the northern seas. 



Fossil in the Tertiary. 



KEY TO SPECIES. 



A. Spire a little lower than the aperture with canal ; whorls with 



about 18 very oblique fine axial riblets ; protoconch striated ula. 



B. Spire a little higher than the aperture with canal ; whorls with 



9-10 low rounded axial ribs ; protoconch smooth . . . . neozelanica. 



1. Bela neozelanica, Suter, 1908. Plate 21, fig. 11. 



Bela neozelanica, Suter, P. Mai. S., viii, 1908, 185, pi. 7, f. 17. 



Shell small, ovate, solid, slightly turriculate, with blunt axial ribs 

 and spiral lirae, maculated with brown and white below the shoulder. 

 Sculpture consisting of rather distant low rounded axial costse, 9 to 

 10 on the body-whorl, extending on the spire-whorls from the angle 

 to the suture below, but only over the periphery on the body-whorl ; 

 they are crossed by subequal flat spiral lirse, fine on the shoulder, 

 broad upon the base, separated by linear interstices. Colour : The 

 protoconch is flavescent, the other spire-whorls yellowish or brownish- 

 white, maculated with brown and white below the shoulder ; the ribs 

 usually white, the interstices brown ; body-whorl light brown below 

 the maculations on the periphery ; aperture fulvous inside. Spire 

 conic, turriculate, very little higher than the aperture. Protoconch 

 papillate, of 2 smooth convex whorls. Whorls 6, the last high in pro- 

 portion, with a sloping broad and lightly excavated shoulder, slightly 



