Neptuneidae 165 



lays her eggs while buried in sand with the siphonal canal protrud- 

 ing obliquely. The proximal end of the egg ribbon is firmly fixed. 

 The last few capsules are always abortive and seldom contain ova. 

 One ribbon bears from 50 to 175 capsules, each containing from 25 

 to 200 ova. Busycon is predatory and carnivorous. It is destructive 

 to the common edible clam and to scallops. It has been seen preying 

 upon Ostrea, Atrina, Spisula, Fasciolaria and Vermetus and it prob- 

 ably attacks any mollusk which its large foot can hold and manipu- 

 late.^"^ 



Careful inspection of embryos from many individual capsules 

 of Busycon " contrarium" has shown a sufficiently definite propor- 

 tion of shell deformities, similar to those of adult shells, to suggest 

 that such distortion may be congenital, not acquired. 



Subgenus BUSYCOTYPUS Wenz, 1943 

 Busycon spiratumso* (Lamarck) PI. 33. fig. 234 



Alt., 90-100 mm., occasional specimens up to 130 mm. Shell 

 pyriform, outline smooth, no sculpture other than coarse and fine 

 spiral ridges, more oblique below. Ground color cream, longitudinal 

 streaks of chestnut-brown, thin epidermis; spire short, body whorl 

 large, sutures wide, and deeply channeled; aperture wide, prolonged 

 into straight, open canal, operculum oval, corneous, brown. 



Sandy bottoms from littoral zone to four fathoms. 



A sinistral specimen of B. sptratum is described by Burnett 

 Smith, Nautilus, vol. 52, No. 3, 



Egg capsules of Busycon spiratnm (Lamarck) PI. 52. figs. 350a, b. c, d 



The egg ribbon of Busycon spiratum is shorter than of B. "con- 

 trarium" seldom more than 35 cm. long. The disc-shaped capsules 



3°3 A bivalve — in described instance an oyster — was held in the foot with 

 the hinge behind the canal, in case of clam, the hinge was toward the colum- 

 ella, but in both cases the edge of the bivalve was left free. Busycon rests on 

 foot with canal directed upward at angle about 30 degrees. The foot is strongly 

 contracted about six times a minute, and the edge of the oyster is brought 

 against the inner edge of the lip with considerable pressure and then drawn 

 inward and toward the canal. A small piece is chipped from the edge of the 

 oyster shell and the process is repeated until a gap is made large enough to ad- 

 mit the radula which then tears out the flesh. This method of getting at the ani- 

 mal explains the roughened and chipped condition of the lip of Busycon, and 

 the chipped oyster and clam shells. Occasionally I have found a live quahog 

 with its edge much chipped, so the whelk does not always succeed. — Feeding 

 Habits of Busycon, Shields Warren, vol. 30, Nautilus. 



30*Lat., spira, coiled, wreathed; pyrum, pear. 



