EEPOET ON THE GASTEEOPODA 95 



3. Bembix? Watson, 1878. 

 Bembix, Watson, Prelim. Eeport, pt. 3, Journ. Linn. Soc. Lond., vol. xiv. p. 603. 



Shell. — Conical, high, carinatecl, tumid on the base, umbilicated, thin, nacreous, covered 

 with a thin membranaceous epidermis. Operculum membranaceous and multispiral. 



A remarkable feature of this genus is its being covered with a thin, extremely persistent, smooth, 

 fibrous epidermis, like that of some of the Helices. This epidermis swells up and becomes pustulated 

 in water. In form the shell recalls some of the Gantharidus group, but is thinner and on the base 

 more tumid ; the axis is perforated, and the pillar is thin, reverted, and merely angulated in front. 

 [A larger specimen has at the last moment come into my hands. It is that referred to by Dr Hoek 

 (Cirripedia, Zool. Chall. Exp., pt. xxv. p. 68), and very roughly outlined on pi. iii. figs. 9, 10. From 

 this specimen the operculum has been described. The basal threads of the shell are somewhat more 

 numerous than I have described them, and the umbilicus is covered, a mere chink alone remaining.] 

 As to the name of the genus, I think the only objection that can be taken to it is that Philippi pro- 

 posed the name Berribidum for one of the genera of Litorinidas, but afterwards himself withdrew it 

 for the prior name of Risclla, Gray. 



Bembix ceola? Watson (PL VII. fig. 13). 



Bembix ceola, "Watson, Prelim. Eeport, pt. 3, Journ. Linn. Soc. Lond., vol. xiv. p. 603. 



Station 232. May 12, 1875. Lat. 35° 11' N., long. 139° 28' E. Inosirna, Japan. 

 345 fathoms. Green mud. 



Station 235. June 4, 1875. Lat. 34° 7' N., long. 138° E. Off Japan. 565 fathoms. 

 Green mud. Bottom temperature 38°1. 



Shell. — High, concavely conical, carinatecl, sculptured on the upper whorls, smooth or 

 wrinkled below, thin, with a tumid lirated base, narrowly umbilicated, with a smooth 

 epidermis, thin, but especially so on the base. More or less nacreous all over under a 

 thin porcellanous upper layer. Sculpture: The first three whorls (after the embryonic 

 apex) are reticulated by three sharp remote spirals, and rather stronger, slightly oblique 

 longitudinals, which rise at their intersection into small sharp pyramidal tubercles ; the 

 interstices are a little broader than high. This system gradually dies out and leaves the 

 surface smooth, only the row of infra-sutural tubercles survives in an enlarged but depressed 

 form, and springing from these some sinuous, oblique, and slightly irregular longitudinal 

 puckerings appear on the last whorl, which is nearly bisected by the sharpish, slightly 

 expressed, finely tubercled carina. This bisection of the last whorl arises from the great 

 prolongation and tumidity of the base, on which, below the carina, are five narrow, equally 

 parted, spiral threads, and two intra-umbilical ones, which are more continuous. Besides 

 this larger system of sculpture, the whole surface is covered with minute, oblique, irregular, 

 and interrupted puckerings of the epidermis. Colour a brownish yellow, but below the 



1 jSe/*jS*g, a top. " cuiUe, variegated. 



