442 GASTROPODA. [PectinibrancMa. 



1. Alcira varians, Hutton, 1885. Plate 20, tig. 4. 



mn'ans, Hutton, T.N.Z.I., xvii, 1885, 314, pi. 18, f. 2 ; Plioc. 

 M., 44, pi. 6, f. 16; not of Sowerby. 1832. Surcula varians. Hutt. : 

 Suter, T.N.Z.I.. xxxi, 69 ; Index, 71. Columbella inconstans. Suter, 

 T.N.Z.I., xxxviii, 1905 (1906), 329. 



Shell small, oblong, solid, spirally grooved or smooth, light brown. 

 Sculpture : The whole shell is either smooth, with a few spiral grooves 

 on the neck of the canal only, or distantly spirally ribbed, the ribs 

 very unequal in number and width ; on the penultimate whorl they 

 vary from 2 to 5, and their number may be up to 15 on the body- 

 whorl ; the ribs are flat, usually broad on the spire-whorls, but narrow 

 on the base ; the interstices are mostly much narrower than the 

 riblets ; the fine growth-lines are distinct only in the moderately 

 deep grooves. Colour light or darker fulvous. Spire elevated conic, 

 nearly twice the height of the aperture, outlines straight, sometimes 

 slightly scalar. Protoconch small, papillate, of 2 smooth whorls, 

 dark brown and polished. Whorls 7, regularly increasing, periphery 

 of body-whorl convex ; base somewhat contracted. Suture canali- 

 culate. Aperture vertical, oval and narrow, lightly channelled above, 

 produced below into a short open and slightly oblique canal, its base 

 moderately notched. Outer lip flatly convex, thickened, with a few 

 small teeth within, the uppermost larger than the others. Columella 

 vertical, straight, and smooth, with an oblique spiral fold at its base, 

 distinctly visible on looking up through the canal. Inner lift narrow 

 and thin, spreading over the straight parietal wall. Operculum un- 

 known. 



Diameter, 3-75 mm. ; height, 9-5 mm. (type, from the Pliocene). 



Animal unknown. 



Type in the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch. 



Hub. Foveaux Strait, in 15 fathoms ; dredged in Dunedin Har- 

 bour (A. Hamilton) ; Auckland Islands (Professor W. B. Benham) ; 

 Snares, in 50 fathoms (Captain Bollons). 



Fossil in the Pliocene. 



Uenus 4. ATILIA. H. and A. Adams, 1853. 



At ilia, H. & A. Ad., Ad. G.R.M., i, 1853, 184. Type: Mitrttta minor, 

 Scacchi. Colninbellopsis,~Bucti., Dollf.. & Uautzenh.. 1882. Tetrastovirlla, 

 Boll, 1889. Clinurella, Sacco, 1889 (in part). 



Shell small, fusiform ; spire elevated, acute ; whorls smooth or 

 longitudinally plicate ; aperture small, subrhomboidal, lightly chan- 

 nelled above, contracted belcw, and ending in a distinct short canal ; 

 outer lip generally thickened and varicose on the outside, crenate 

 within ; columella straight, sometimes plicate below. 



Distribution chiefly in the Pacific. 



Fossil in the Tertiary. 



