38 



A REVIEW OF THE VOLUTIDAE 



Alt. 150-300 mm. 

 Hab. Australia. 



Nucleus consisting of three whorls, 

 very obsoletely granulosa; post-nuclear 

 whorls, three, ventrlcose, the last being 

 extraordinarily large; shell rather thin, 

 pale fulvous color, with three broad, 

 orange -chestnut bands, marked with white 

 and fuscus spots; aperture oblong, very 

 large, posteriorly acuminated, wider in the 

 middle; columlella with four, distinct, 

 orange-colored plaits, 



A beautiful species, one of the 

 largest of the genus. Peculiar to the 

 coast of Australia, south to the Tropic of 

 Capricorn. It is found in some Australian 

 estuaries according to Sowerby. 



Aulica maria-erama (Gray) 1859 

 (Plate 14, Figure 103) 



Valuta maria-emma Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 



London, 1859, p. 23O, T. 48. Sowerby: 



Thes. Conch., vol. 3, Ist suppl., p. 27I, 



plate 12, (Thes. plate 26l) fig. 133. 



Tryon: Man. Conch., vol. 4, p. 91, 



plate 26, fig. -jh, 1882. 

 Valuta irayae Crosse, J. de C, 19, 287, 



1871. Tryon: Man. Conch., vol, 4, 



p. 91, 1882. 



Alt, 



140 



Hab. Northwest Coast of Australia (Cox). 



The' original description is as fol- 

 lows: 



Shell ovate, fusiform, pale brown, 

 with narrow, deeply-waved, longitudinal, 

 dark-brown lines, forming four more or less 

 distinct. Interrupted, spiral bands, con- 

 sisting of the broader and straighter por- 

 tions of the longitudinal lines; nucleus 

 large, subcylindrical, with a regular 

 spiral, smooth and rounded apex, without 

 any crenulation near the suture; spire con- 

 ical; whorls rather ventricose; outer lip 

 rather arched. 



It combines the characters of sev- 

 eral species. It has the large, regular, 

 smooth-whorled, spired nucleus, of S. 

 aulica, S. deshayesl I, ■ S- luteostoma, etc., 

 the fusiform shape of S. rut i la, and espe- 

 cially of the smooth variety of S. aulica 



but it is entirely differently colored from 

 both of them and all the large species of 

 the genus, the coloring resembling that of 

 A . undulata . Indeed some conchologists, to 

 whom I have shown the specimen, have re- 

 garded it as a very large specimen of the 

 latter species, which has lost its external 

 polished coat, and with a larger nucleus 

 than usual . 



A careful examination of the shell 

 at once shows the fallacy of such an idea. 

 The form and structure of the nucleus are 

 entirely unlike that of the genus Amoria . 

 The shell Is entirely destitute of any 

 polished coat, which is the character of 

 that genus, as is proved by the examination 

 of the body whorl near the inner lip; for, 

 though the very thin inner lip is almost 

 entirely destroyed, yet the groove which 

 indicates its extent is well marked by a 

 rather broad impressed line, defining its 

 limits and showing that it was not even 

 extended over the lower part of the body 

 whorl of the shell, much less over the ex- 

 treme surface of it. 



Gray named this species after his 

 wife, Maria-Emma Gray, who was the author 

 of "Figures of Molluscous Animals for the 

 use of Students" and also an industrious 

 collector of shells. 



Aulica nlvosa (Lamarck) 1844 

 (Plate 17, Figure 121) 



Valuta nivosa Lamarck, An. s. Vert., edit. 



Deshayes, vol. 10, p. 389, 1844. Reeve: 



Conch. Icon., Plate 7, fig. I7, 1849. 



Tryon: Man. Conch,, vol. 4, p. 86, 



plate 25, fig. 53, 1882, 

 Valuta nivosa Broderip in Sowerby, Thes. 



Conch., vol, 1, p. 200, plate 51, figs. 



63, 64. 



Alt. 62-88 mm. 



Hab. Garden Island, Australia, 



Nucleus consisting of three whorls, 

 the latter two provided with low, nodulous 

 processes upon the summit, often whitish 

 in contrast to the dark surface; post- 

 nuclear whorls, three, slightly carinated; 

 suture, regular, descending anteriorly ad- 

 jacent to body whorl; sculpture of fine 

 growth lines, together with feeble, spiral 

 striae; columella with four plaits, the 



