183 



from which it differs not only in the characters just mentioned, but 

 in having frondose varices, smaller umbilicus, and a thinner shell. 



Dimensions. — Length 32 mm. ; breadth (not including spines) 

 15 mm. ; length of aperture 10 mm. ; length of canal 10 mm. 



Form, and Loo. — Pliocene : Shakespeare Cliff, Wanganui, N.Z. 



G. 9546. Several specimens illustrating stages of growth. 



Sir James Hector Coll. 



G. 9716. Example in which the frondose varices are much 

 reduced in size. (O/aJ Collection.) 



Murex (Muricidea) asperulus, Tate. 



[Plate V. Figs. lOa-c?.] 



1888. Murex [Ocinebra) asperulus, Tate, Trans. Roy. Soe. South Aust. 



vol. X. p. 106, pi. iii. fig. 1. 

 1893. Murex asperulus, Tate and Deiinant, id. vol. xvii. pt. 1, p. 218. 



Shell fusiform, tumid, rugged ; protoconch composed of one 

 and a halt' smooth canaliculate turns, the earlier portion inflated 

 and obtuse, the later slightly contracted and ending abruptly by 

 u very prominent varix, or thickening ; the shell in the brephic 

 stage is cancellate, but at later stages of growth the prominent 

 longitudinal lineations involved in the cancellate structure become 

 developed into broad rugose varices or costiB, of which there are 

 six on the body-whorl ; the spiral lineations are bold, and there 

 are about nine of these on the penultimate whorl; lines of growth 

 close together, and producing minute vaulted scales in crossing 

 over the spiral lineations, which form the characteristic rugged- 

 ness on the exterior of the shell ; suture cut in, the whorls at 

 first sloping gently away from it and then becoming rounded ; 

 body-whorl constricted towards the anterior, but lineate and 

 rugged throughout ; aperture round, slightly opened in front ; 

 outer margin thin, the spiral ornament reflected within ; inner 

 margin smooth ; columella covered by a thin plate of enamel 

 detached near the twist at the entrance of the moderately long, 

 curved canal ; large vaulted scales appear in the front part of 

 the columella bordering the canal. 



This species is reiigured, as the view given by Professor Tate 

 hardly does justice to it, showing but one side only, and that of 

 not a very typical example, apparently. It approaches the genus 

 UrosaJpinx in that it is fusiform, and that the varices are not very 



