256 BULLETIN OF THE 



I take much pleasure in dedicating this neat little species, agreeing with no 

 other in the collection, to Dr. E. von Martens, the distinguished and erudite 

 conchologist of Berlin. 



The character of the sculpture of this species is quite close to that of Cerithi- 

 ella melula, hut that shell is proportionally less cylindrical, much wider, larger, 

 and stronger. Whether the more slender species will agree with Loven's type 

 in their dentition remains to he seen. There is nothing in the shell of any of 

 them to separate them from Cerilkiopsis. 



Cerithiopsis acontium n. s. 



Shell small, dark brown, columnar, with sixteen whorls beside the nucleus. 

 Whorls flattened, with three nodulous spirals, of which the middle one is most 

 prominent, crossing about twenty narrow straight transverse riblets, extending 

 from suture to suture ; base marked by an untubercled keel which is buried iu 

 the suture, remainder flattened-concave with radiating striae; canal short, re- 

 curved; aperture small, squarish, simple. Lon. of shell, 8.0 ; max. lat of shell, 

 1.4 mm. 



Habitat. Barbados, 100 fms. 



The specimen has lost the nucleus, which appears to have been styliform or 

 elongated. It recalls C. abrupta in the general features of color and sculpture, 

 but is immediately differentiable by its straight-sidedness, particular sculpture, 

 and different nucleus and base. The interstices and sutures are deep, the 

 base concave, and the canal very short but distinctly twisted. It would not be 

 a Metaxia. 



Section METAXIA Monterosato. 

 Cerithiopsis metaxse Della Chiaje. 



Murex metaxa Della Chiaje, Mem., III. p. 222, pi. xlix. figs. 29-31, 1829. 

 Cerithiopsis melaxce Jeffreys, Brit. Conch., IV. p. 271 ; V. p. 217, pi. lxxxi. fig. 4 



(P. Z. S. 1885, p. 61, ex parte). Watson, Linn. Soc. Journ., XIX p. 94, pi. 



iv. figs. 10, 10 a, 1885. 



This species, which inhabits the British Isles and extends thence to the Ca- 

 naries and the Mediterranean, was found by the Blake at Station 20, in 220 

 fms., and has recently been collected by the U. S. Fish Commission on the 

 coast of North Carolina, and by Hemphill at Key West in Florida. 



Cerithiopsis metaxse var. taeniolata Dall. 



A very beautiful variety, if indeed it be not a distinct species, was obtained 

 at Stations 2612, 2615, and 2619 by the U. S. Fish Commission, off the Caro- 

 lina coast, in 15-52 fms. 



In general it resembles the C. metaxce, but the longitudinal ribs are stronger 

 than the spirals, — there are about a dozen of them as against twenty-five in 

 March 28, 1889. 



