MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 167 



large body whorl, and rapidly tapering canal, it has no parallel among recent 

 species. Its nearest relative, and doubtless ancestor, is the Fusus Caloosaensis 

 Heilprin, from the Pliocene of the Caloosahatchie River, Florida, which has 

 very much such a spire, but the whorls are appressed to the suture and the 

 sculpture is markedly different in detail ; the lira? of the outer lip are double, 

 and the shell is usually smaller than in the present species. 



In Fusus timcssus the soft parts are white, the operculum thick and solid. 

 Neither appears to differ from those ordinary to the genus. 



Fusus eucosmius n. s. 



Plate XXXV. Fig. 5. 



This shell is close to Fusus turriculus Kiener, from the Chinese coast, and i3 

 best described by a comparison with it. The nucleus of turriculus is brown 

 and swollen, the first whorl being larger than the one which succeeds it ; in 

 eucosmius it is smaller, white, and the second turn is larger than the first. 

 F. turriculus with eleven whorls measures 110.0 mm. long and 30.0 in diam- 

 eter. F. eucosmius with eleven whorls measures 85.0 by 23.5 mm. It has its 

 mouth relatively as well as actually smaller than the Chinese species; the 

 maximum diameter of the aperture in the latter enters 6.1 times into the total 

 length, while in F. eucosmius it will enter 6.6 times. The average number of 

 transverse ribs in F. turriculus is ten, in F. eucosmia eight, while in the latter 

 they are usually more prominent, especially at the periphery, and the inter- 

 spaces are deeper. The color of the Chinese form is yellowish white, but most 

 of the Antillean specimens tend toward an orange hue like that of a ripe apri- 

 cot. In other features the two species are very similar, except that the inner 

 lip of eucosmius is always smooth, while in adult specimens of the Chinese 

 shell the equivalent surface is strongly irregularly lirate. 



Habitat. West Florida, in 60 fms. ; Station 11, in 37 fms., near Cuba; 

 Station 290, in 73 fms., sand, off Barbados, bottom temperature 70°. 7. Also 

 at U. S. Fish Commission Stations 2316, 2317, 2318, off Key West, in 45-50 

 fms., sand, temperature 75°. 0, and 2402, in 111 fms., and 2411 in 27 fms., sand, 

 in the Gulf of Mexico. 



The specimens obtained by the Blake were all very young and imperfect. 

 The characters of the species could not have been made out without an exam- 

 ination of the Fish Commission specimens, most of which were adult and 

 living. 



o 



FUSUS Couei Petit. 

 Fusus Couei Petit, Journ. de Conchyl., IV. p. 249, pi. viii. fig. 1, 1853. 



Habitat. U. S. Fish Commission Stations 2411 and 2414, in the Gulf of 

 Mexico between Tampa and Dry Tortugas, in 26-27 fms., sand. 



