MURICIDAE 



209 



1% to 2 inches in length; spire half the length of the grayish white shell; 

 6 whorls with numerous, indistinct to moderately well-developed, rounded 

 ribs and more numerous, small, frequently scaled, spiral cords — all of which 

 gives the shell a rough, sandpaper feel. Whorls in spire shouldered slightly. 

 Aperture enamel-white. References in 1937 and earlier to Trophon tejmi- 

 sculptus Carpenter are this species. The true temiiscidptiis is an Ocenebra. 



Hexagonal Murex 



Plate 2 5h 



Genus Muricopsis Bucquoy, Dautz. and DoUfuss 1882 

 Muricopsis hexagona Lamarck 



Florida Keys and the West Indies. 



I to I /4 inches in length, elongate, heavy, with a high spire, and sharply 

 spinose on each of the 7 axial ribs on each whorl. Exterior chalk-white or 

 tinted with orange-brown. Aperture white. A moderately common reef 

 species. The genus Muricidea Morch 1852, not Swainson 1840, is the same 

 as this genus. 



Figure 47. Oyster Drills of the Atlantic Coast, a, Eiipleiira stimpsoni Dall; b, 

 Eiipleiira caudata Say; c, Eiipleiira sidcidevtata Dall; d, Urosalpinx pernigata Con- 

 rad; e, Urosalpinx chierea Say; f, Pseiidoneptunea vndtangida Philippi; g, Muri- 

 copsis ostreanim Conrad. All about i inch in length. 



