Cymatiidae and Muricidae 151 



shell solid; about seven convex whorls, rapidly increasing in size 

 from acute apex; taffy color; clear brown epidermis with longi- 

 tudinal reflections whose edges bear numerous hairlike processes; 

 sculpture of strong revolving ribs, equally wide interspaces and in- 

 cised lines; ribs somewhat nodular over upper whorls. Sutures dis- 

 tinct; aperture oval, prolonged into straight, open, anterior canal; 

 outer lip thickened, margin scalloped by external ribs, slightly re- 

 flected inward, convexity of scallops brown; columella sinuous, finely 

 plicate, brown between plaits. Interior polished, ribbed; operculum 

 corneous, brown. 



The animal is greenish mustard-yellow and black-spotted. 



Several livmg specimens have been found on Sanibel beach 

 after storms. 



A few worn shells of C. aquitilis, C. cyanocephaluni and C. 

 jemorale have been found on western Florida beaches, but a local 

 origm is improbable. 



Order STEN0GL0SSA2T5 

 Family MURICIDAE 



The family Muricidae has adapted itself to as wide and diverse 

 a range of habitat and distribution as any member of its phylum. 

 Every sea has genera peculiar to its depth and temperature, but 

 the great majority of the thousand odd species are found in tropical 

 or subtropical waters. 



The cannibalistic Muricidae prefer to live on gravelly bottom, 

 about coral or rocky reefs where an abundance of other mollusks 

 provides a sufficiency of food to satisfy their carnivorous appetites, 

 both pelecypods and gasteropods being acceptable victims. Murex, 

 Eupleura, and Urosalpinx are enemies to the oyster; Area is 

 a favorite food of Murex, which attacks it by thrusting the tough 

 proboscis between the ark's open valves in such a manner as to 

 prevent closure while the animal is being eaten alive. Aristotle 

 wrote of Murex that the mouth is armed with a sort of trunk com- 

 parable to those of the fly or rather those of the gadfly. 



B. B. Woodward wrote that those Murices which have spines 

 about the aperture have one spine directed inward which is used 



-'^^ Gr., stenos, narrow; glossa, tongue. 



