J)<dl and Jhtrtsch The PyramideUidw. 3 



and this has been regarded as a sufficient reason for rejecting 

 this and other names contained in it, as it is known that Hum 

 phrey, who was an auctioneer and dealer, usually credited with 

 the authorship, is not the author, and the work itself is of no 

 scientific value. 



Family Pyramidellidae. 



Gastropods with the radula absent or obsolete; the operculum ovoid, 

 paucispiral, with the apex anterior, a thread-like arcuate ridge on the 

 proximal side, the inner margin notched in harmony with the plaits of 

 the pillar when prominent; foot short, moderately pointed behind, with 

 a small operculigerous lobe above and sometimes a small tentacular ap 

 pendix on each side, in front feebly auriculate or undulate; mantle fee 

 bly canaliferous on the right upper margin; a single branchia; verge 

 sub-cylindric, elongate; head with two flattened subtriangular or elon 

 gate tentacles, connate, grooved or auriform in the larger forms, the 

 t'unicles with a ciliated area; below the tentacles an oral orifice from 

 which extends a long retractile subcylindric proboscis, but there is no 

 muzzle like that of Scala; below the oral orifice is an organ named by 

 Loven the men-turn, which is usually more or less medially grooved or 

 fissured, and hence, at its anterior end, more or less bilobate, and exten 

 sile or retractile before or behind the front margin of the foot. The 

 shell is turrited, with a plijate axis; the outer lip frequently internally 

 lirate: in the larger forms the aperture is obscurely channelled in front; 

 the larval shell is sinistral the adult dextral, the former frequently set 

 at an angle to the adult axis, or more or less -immersed in the adult 

 apical whorls; it is usually helicoid and smooth; the sculpture varies 

 from nothing to ribbed, spirally sulcate or reticulate; the coloration 

 when present usually reddish, brownish or yellow. The eggs are num 

 erous and deposited in a lenticular mass. The distribution is world 

 wide, but the larger forms are mostly tropical. 



SYNOPSIS OF THE GENERA OF PYRAMTDELLID^E. 



Pyramidella Lamarck. 



Shell elongate-conic, whorls usually inflated and regularly increasing; 

 the pillar with from one to three folds; the outer lip entire; the shell 

 usually larger than in Turbonitta. Type, Trochus dolabratus Linne". 



Turbonilla Risso. 



Shell cylindro-conic, many whorled, generally slejider; columellar 

 fold single, varying in strength, outer lip entire; shell usually smaller 



