Phalium.] GASTROPODA. 313 



nodules upon the angle of the shoulder, sometimes with a second row 

 a little further down, a number of cinguli between the angle and the 

 suture ; the upper whorls finely spirally striated ; from 6 to 8 shallow 

 grooves on the base ; incremental lines distinct, reticulating the fine 

 spiral stripe of the upper whorls : the prominence of the sculpture is 

 subject to great variation. Colour uniformly bay or pale dun, with 

 bands of chestnut-brown wavy spots ; outer lip banded with purplish- 

 brown upon the outer edge. Spire low, conoidal, sharply pointed, 

 about one-fifth the height of the aperture. Protoconch small, globose, 

 of 2^ smooth and convex whorls. Whorls about 7, the last large 

 and ventricose, angulate above, flatly convex below ; base lounded. 

 Suture impressed. Aperture large, indistinctly channelled above, with 

 a sharply recurved short and open canal below. Outer lip rounded, 

 quite smooth. Columella slightly oblique, with a number of small 

 folds above, and 1 or 2 large plaits below. Inner lip spreading as 

 a thick white and folded plate beyond the columella, leaving the 

 triangular umbilicus wide open. 



Diameter, 31 mm. ; height, 42 mm. : angle of spire, 102. Dia- 

 meter, 60 mm. ; height, 87 mm. (very large specimen). 



Animal unknown. 



Type in the Mus. Hist. Nat., Geneva. 



Hab. North Island, and Martin's Bay in the South Island ; 

 Hawke's Bay, in about 20 fathoms ; Kermadec Islands. Found also 

 in Australia and Tasmania, &c. 



Remarks. Distinguished from the species in being thinner, more 

 inflated, with a shorter spire, more or less distinctly noduled, and 

 spirally sulcate above and on the base. 



This subspecies is of quite special interest. " I have found it on the 

 coast of Rio Grande do Sul, and it is known from the Indian Ocean, 

 New Zealand, meridional Africa, &c. It has been found fossil in the 

 Pliocene of New Zealand. As no species of Cassidea has been found 

 in the Tertiary of Argentina, it is evident that it is of tropic origin, 

 adapting itself to the temperate zone in distant regions." (Von 

 Ihering.) 



Fossil in the Pliocene. 



Fam. TONNHXE!. 



Animal very large ; the mantle dilated ; head wide, bearing 2 

 elongated distant tentacles, dilated at the base, and having eyes near 

 the base ; proboscis cylindrical, greatly developed, extensible and 

 flexible ; foot lobed and dilated in front, with a horizontal groove. 



Shell thin, ventricose, ovate or subglobose, subumbilicate ; spire 

 short, the body-whorl very large, with revolving ribs or decussated ; 

 aperture large, sinuated at the base. No operculum in the adult. 



The shells are mostly of large size, and the species are few in 

 number, inhabiting warm seas. 



Fossil. A Cretaceous form is known, with some Tertiary species. 



