294 KECOJtDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM 



into folds by a ridge on the shoulder and two lesser ones below 

 the periphery, the shoulder folds rise in hulluw thorns. On the 

 base the varices cease. Aperture round, the outer lip projecting 

 in a broad squamose varix, the inner expanding over the axis. 

 Canal short, broad and open. Length, 3-5; breadth, 2-1 mm. 



As our investigations are pushed into colder water it may be 

 expected that so characteristic an Antarctic group as Trophon 

 will appear in force. Among Austi-alian species, the present 

 diminutive form is most like T. himinatiis, Petterd,^" than which 

 it is shorter, comparatively broader, with more prominent and 

 wider spaced varices. In all stages a plain distinction is furnished 

 by the protoconch, which in laininatas is abruptly ti'uncate, in 

 Mimuleus conical. 



As FELLA UN DATA, S}). HOV. 



(Plate Iv., fig. 15). 



Shell small, solid, ovate. Whorls six, of which two form tlie 

 protoconch. Colour : cream, with a pale purple-brown, narrow 

 peripheral zone, which re-appears within the aperture. Sculpture : 

 each whorl has eight or nine discontinuous rib-varices, which be- 

 gin with a minute, forwardly-directed hook under the sutui'e, 

 swell more steeply before than behind, their interstices, broad 

 wave-troughs, describe a sigmoid flexure across the whorlsj fade 

 across the base and terminate as scales upon the snout ; the gene- 

 ral surface is smooth. Protoconch turbinate, glassy. Aperture 

 sub-rhomboidal, pinched above, exteriorly with a well developed 

 varix, lined with a narrow, projecting lip. Columella bent ; inner 

 lip well-developed, rising over a short axial groove. Anterior 

 canal very short and broad. Length, 6-5 mm.; breadth, 3 mm. 



A few specimens, mostly broken. 



The genus Aspella was introduced by Morch^^ for Ranella 

 artceps, Lamk., a species which in Eastern Australia ranges from 

 Torres Strait to Sydney. Dr. W. H. DalP- revised the genus, 

 and transferred it to the Muricidae, near Trophon. The absence 

 of the bilateral varices gives the novelty an aspect strange to the 

 genus, but the difference is one of degree rather than of kind. In 

 this respect Aspella senex, DalP^ appears to connect these species. 



10 Petter.l -Journ of Conch., iv., 1884, p. 136. 



11 Morch -Malak. Blatt., xxiv., 1877, p. 24. 



1^ ])all— Bull. Mas. Comp. ZooL, xviii., 1889., pp. 206-10. 



i« Dall— Trans. Wagner Free Inst. Sci., iii., 1903, pi. Ix., f. 14. 



