THE NAUTILUS. 



VOL. XXV. JULY, 1911. No. 3 



A NEW LEPTOTHYKA FROM CALIFORNIA. 



BY WILLIAM H. BALL. 



Mr. C. W. Gripp, of San Diego, Cal., recently obtained from a 

 fisherman a stone hauled up on a fishing-line from the rock-cod banks 

 off the entrance to San Diego harbor, in 100 to 150 fathoms. On 

 this stone, beside corallines, annelids, etc., were several mollusks, 

 Placobranchns {OscanieUaT) californicus Dall, Crepidula nummaria 

 Gould, a Saxicava and two specimens of a Leptothyra, which is un- 

 described and markedly different from any other species of that 

 genus known to the Coast. Both specimens were immature, but the 

 older one lacks merely the thickening of the aperture which comes 

 with maturity. Both contained the operculum. 



Leptothyra grippii n. sp. 



Shell small, solid, of about five whorls; the apex slightly flattened, 

 nepionic whorls one and a half, small, nearly smooth, whitish; sculp- 

 ture on the spire on the second whorl three, increasing to five on the 

 last whorl, strong, prominent, squarish spiral cords, articulated in the 

 type with crimson and white, the interspaces at first smooth, on the 

 later whorls with one to three intercalary much smaller spiral threads; 

 on the last whorl between the peripheral cord and the next posterior 

 cord five uniform fine threads, though this feature is probably vari- 

 able; base flattened, translucent white, with one articulated crimson 

 and white color band around the umbilical region, which is also white; 

 pillar broad, white, with one prominent knob of callus in the middle 

 of it; throat brilliantly pearly; the whorl is laid slightly above the 



