Mr. W. H. Benson on Recluzia, Petit. 413 



emarginate. Further observations are necessary to decide whe- 

 ther an obtuse or acute periphery is a sufficient character to 

 enable us to pronounce an opinion on the viviparous or oviparous 

 habit of a species. I may here remark that on one day /. pal- 

 lida was taken without egg-cells, while two days after, the same 

 species was provided with them, — a circumstance unfavourable 

 to arguments derived from the negative character in other 

 species. 



Ianthina incisa, Philippi, has been overlooked by Morch in 

 his list of synonyms. It was described in the ' Zeitschrift fur 

 Malak.' for 1848. The character attributed to the suture is 

 found both in L Carpenteri, Morch, and /. fragilis, Lamarck. 

 Great stress is laid on the depth of the emargination of the 

 labrum ; but this is so variable in other species, that it cannot 

 be relied on alone for specific distinction. 



Recluzia, Petit. 



Two species of this Ianthid are figured in the ( Journ. de 

 Conch/ for 1853 ; a third species, figured by Adams, is supposed 

 by Morch to be R. turrita, V. d. Busch, described by Philippi as 

 an Ianthina in the ' Zeitschrift ' for 1848 (not 1847, as stated by 

 Morch). A shell found by Bennett in his whaling voyage, near 

 the Kingsmill group, to the east of New Ireland, and which he 

 names, without a description, Ianthina lutea, undoubtedly be- 

 longs to this genus. In a line of sea-drift, he says, "Ianthina 

 were the most abundant of the floating Mollusks. Their num- 

 ber was immense, and their floats contributed greatly to the 

 white appearance of the froth-line. One species of this family 

 was new to me, and is certainly very rare ; its shell was yellow, 

 rather smaller and more elongated than /. communis, and the 

 whorl more prominent and spiral. The contained animal was 

 also of a yellow colour, but in the form of its float and in other 

 respects it closely resembled the ordinary blue-shelled species*." 



The species of Recluzia of which the habitats are recorded 

 come from Mazatlan, in Mexico, and the Arabian Gulf. Two 

 specimens of a small shell, which must evidently be classed with 

 this genus, and differing from any species described, were cap- 

 tured in a towing net by one of my fellow-passengers, abreast 

 of the opening between the Great and Little Nicobar, and about 

 sixty miles to the west of it. Unfortunately he had cleared out 

 the animals and thrown them away before informing me next 

 day of his acquisition ; and I was only able to note that it was 

 a new, horn-coloured, shining, turreted shell, pointed at the base 

 of the aperture, and with a sinus above the angular base towards 



* Narrative of a Whaling Voyage, by F. D. Bennett, F.R.G.S., 1833- 

 1836 (published in 1840) ; vide vol. ii. pp. 62, 63, and Appendix, p. 298. 



