MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 223 



Buffo Montfort, Concliyl., II. p. 575, 1810. (? Err. pro Bufo? Non Bufo Daud.) 



Type, Ranella crumena Lam. ? 

 Biplex Perry, Conch., Expl. pis. iv. and v., 1811. First species, Biplex rosa Perry 



(= Ranella siphonata Reeve). ' 



Ranella Lamarck, Extrait d'un Cours, etc., 1812. Type, Mnrex gyrinus L. 



Rejecting the nomina nuda of Humphrey and Bolten, as required by the 

 rules of nomenclature, the first name applied to this group was that of Link, 

 who gave a proper diagnosis, and included in his genus only species of Ranella, 

 as they have been more commonly called. Buffo Montfort, Biplex Perry, and 

 Ranella Lamarck, were subsequent, and synonymous. Perry's ill-constructed 

 name has been retained in a sectional sense for the singular B. perca, which he 

 included in his genus and was the first to describe. According to the rules of 

 nomenclature, Lamarck's name must be entirely suppressed if the genus be 

 regarded in the old sense. The species cited by him in his Extrait d'un Cours 

 (p. 118, 1812) is, according to Gray, Murex gyrinus Linne. But the older 

 authors confounded under this name half a dozen entirely distinct shells, and 

 it is impossible to know which of them he had in view. If the Ranellas with- 

 out a sutural canal be transferred, as has been done by Dr. Paul Fischer, to 

 Tritonium as a subgenus, the Ranella of Lamarck would simply be a synonym 

 of it. For this subgenus, in violation of all rules, Argobuccinum Klein has 

 been widely adopted, though Apollon Montfort, recognized by Cuvier, will 

 probably have to be accepted. It must be borne in mind, that Montfort's 

 synonymy is not to be accepted without strict confirmation and comparison 

 with his figures. His identification with Linnean names of the shells he figures 

 is frequently wrong. What is certain is, that in 1810 he divided these shells 

 (afterward combined under the name of Ranella by Lamarck) into two genera, 

 Buffo comprising those with a sutural canal, and Apollon those without it. 

 This amounted to a division of Gyrineum Link into two groups. But the 

 name Gyrineum must be retained for one of these, as prior. Buffo is probably 

 only a lapsus for Bufo, already in use for Batrachians at that date, so that, two 

 groups being admitted, they would necessarily be Gyrineum and Apollon, both 

 of which have numerous subsequent synonyms, including Ranella Lamarck, 

 Biplex Perry, Bufonaria Schumacher, etc. 



We are so destitute of exact information as to the soft parts, dentition, etc. 

 of these animals, that it is not possible at present to arrive at a permanent 

 settlement of the recognizable subdivisions. 



I cannot help feeling that the wholesale transfer of the Apollon group to 

 Tritonium is hardly justified as yet. There are, doubtless, some species which 

 should be so eliminated ; others will be associated with the Muricidce, but the 

 absolute identity in the opercula of numerous canaliferous and non-canaliferous 

 species, the close similarity of sculpture, habit, and conchological characters, 

 except the sutural canal, between various species of Apollon and Gyrineum, 

 and the very slight difference which exists between a shallow sutural canal 

 and the ordinary groove between the outer lip and the labial tubercle on the 



