﻿DALL] REVIEW OF FROG-SHELLS AND TRITONS ll,~ 



Three years later Blainville in his Manual divides the genus into 

 two groups, Ranella s. s. with R. granulata as type ] I =R. bufonia 

 as figured), and Apollon Montfort, with Ranella ranina Lamarck, 

 cited as type, and R. gigantea Lamarck figured as an example. 



This practically brings us to a point where we can sum up the 

 status of these older names before taking up more modern treatment 

 of the group and its subdivisions. It seems that we have, in the 

 Tritoniens of the older writers, two groups which have developed in 

 a somewhat parallel manner: one, in which varical periodicity is 

 generally irregular but sometimes regularly restricted to half a circuit 

 of the columellar axis, and in which there is no anal canal in the 

 aperture ; another, in which the varices occur almost always regularly 

 but in which there is always an anal sinus, sometimes conspicuously 

 produced in the form of a guttered spine. This distinction was 

 recognized by Bolten, Montfort, and Blainville, among the older 

 writers, and emphasized by Jousseaume and Fischer among the 

 modern systematists. I am inclined to accept this view as being the 

 most satisfactory method of dividing a somewhat puzzling family. 



It is evident that the first available name for the group typified by 

 Murex rana (L.) Bolten, is Bursa Bolten, and that this must be 

 adopted for the genus. Eliminating from Link's group the species 

 properly belonging to Bursa we have Murex gyriuus Gmelin, left 

 to carry Link's name Gyrineum, of which Apollon Montfort will 

 be a synonym. Biplex Perry may be reserved for one of the sub- 

 divisions of Gyrineum. The subdivision a of Schumacher's Bufonaria 

 is typical Bursa, but for the subdivision f3 typified by Murex scrobi- 

 lator Linne, the name may be retained; Lampas Schumacher (not 

 of the Museum Calonnianum or H. and A. Adams) and Tutu fa 

 Jousseaume, are synonymous. If Gyrina Schumacher is regarded 

 as preoccupied by Gyriuus Linne, the group so designated must be 

 given a new name. 



H. and A. Adams were the next authors to modify the nomen- 

 clature of the group to which they added the subgenus Aspa and also 

 reinstated Bursa and revived the prelinnean Argobuccinum for 

 Murex argus Gmelin and its allies. Otherwise they rather added 

 to than diminished existing confusion. 



In 1 88 1 Jousseaume took up the group with a keen eye for dis- 

 tinctive characters. If his researches had carried him far enough to 

 discover the original types of the different named groups, and he 

 had arranged his system accordingly, this author might have had the 

 gratification of finally systematizing the group. But as it was he 



1 Not R. granulata of Lamarck. 

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