212 BULLETIN OF THE 



Genus MURICIDEA (Swainson) Morch. 



< Muricidea Swainson, Malac, p. 296, 1840. 

 = Muricidea Morch, Cat. Yoldi, p. 95, 1852. 



= Muricopsis Bucquoy et Dautzenberg, Moll. Marins du Roussillon, p. 19, pi. i. 

 figs. 5, 6, 1882 ; Fischer, Man., p. 642. 



Swainson's genus contained a heterogeneous assembly After eliminating the 

 forms which had already been separated from Murex by Montfort as Trophon, 

 Phos, etc., there remained M. hexagona Lamarck and allied species to conserve 

 Swainson's name. This revision was indicated by Morch as above cited, who 

 gives M. hexagona and M. Blainvillei Payr. as examples. This revision has 

 been accepted by Carpenter and others without comment, but appears to have 

 been overlooked by the authors of the Marine Mollusca of Roussillon, who in 

 1882 proposed the subgenus Muricopsis for the same two species. Numerous 

 species which have been referred to Pseudomurex, etc., doubtless belong in this 

 group, which is so intimately related to the genus Murex as to raise grave doubts 

 as to its right to rank higher than a subgenus. The chief characters of the 

 group are the absence of primary varices, or those, so characteristic of Murex, 

 Tritonium, Ranella, etc., which dominate over the ordinary system of ribs; 

 the operculum, like that of Fusus rather than Murex, with its apical or almost 

 apical nucleus; the tallish spire, and the always open canal. Some species 

 have only ribs; in the typical species there are spiny varices instead of ribs; 

 in others again it is difficult to say whether the structure is a rib or a varix. 



Muricidea hexagona Lamarck. 



Fragments of this species were found in several of the dredgings. It is not 

 rare on the Mexican coast and among the Antilles. 



n 



Muricidea floridana Conrad. 



Urosalpinx floridanus Conrad, Am. Journ. Conch., V. p. 106, pi. xii. fig. 4, 1869. 

 ? Murex ostrearum Conrad, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., III. p. 25, 1846. 

 Muricidea floridana Dall, Hemphill's Shells, p. 326, 1883. 



This species is well named, as I have never seen a specimen except from 

 Florida. I have little doubt, from all the circumstances, that this is Murex 

 ostrearum of Conrad. Conrad's description was very short, loose, and insuffi- 

 cient for purposes of identification, so it is just as well to let it alone and re- 

 tain the name about which no doubt exists. This species is very liable to be 

 confounded with Urosalpinx perrugatus Conrad, which is found with it, among 

 the oysters. That species is best distinguished by the longer, more sculptured, 

 and less excavated shoulder to the whorl, the shorter and wider canal, and the 

 purpuroid operculum. M. floridana has a totally different fusoid operculum 

 with apical nucleus, as I showed in 1883. 



