V L U T vV. 



Plate 



Genus Voluta, Linnaiis. 



Testa ovata vel fusijhnnis, basi late emaryimdii, spirit nunc 

 brevi, nunc acuminato-exsertd, apice plerumque plus 

 minus oltuse papillari, interdum tenue nodulosd, an- 

 fractibus lavibtis vel tuberculatis, scepe rudi costatis, 

 interdum auteni raro cancellatis, columella fortiter 

 plicatd, plicis duabus ad quinque, interdum plicis 

 tenuibns numerosis supra, aperturd subampld, labro put- 

 rum incrassato, nunquam crenato. Operculum corneum. 

 Shell ovate or fusiform, broadly emarginated at the base, 

 spire now short, now acuminately exserted, apex 

 generally more or less obtusely papillary, sometimes 

 finely noduled, whorls smooth or tuberculated, often 

 rudely ribbed, sometimes but rarely cancellated, co- 

 lumella strongly plaited, plaits two to five in number, 

 with sometimes numerous fine plaits above, aperture 

 rather large, lip but little thickened, never crenated. 

 Operculum horny. 

 The Volutes, termed by an accomplished writer the 

 nobles of Testacea, just as LinnaBus, in his admiration of 

 the Palms, called them the princes of the vegetable world, 

 have always been "a fa/ourite genus among collectors. They 

 present an agreeable variety of form, a lively arrangement 

 of colours, and many are of eminent rarity. In its geo- 

 graphical range the genus is peculiarly Australian ; and 

 owing to the diffusion of our empire into that distant 

 region, whose fauna and flora are alike marked with a 

 character singularly distinct from those of any other part 

 of the world, we have become possessed of many species, 

 and varieties of species, which, from a country more gene- 

 rally accessible, would have been more equally shared by 

 other European cabinets. Of four-and-twenty species 

 truly ascertained to be from that locality, only seven were 

 known to Lamarck. 



In reviewing the various modifications of character, our 

 attention should be first directed to the most permanent 

 featm-e of the genus, — the plaits of the columella. These 

 are mostly four or five in number, strongly developed and 

 winding round the pillar somewhat obliquely. In some 

 few species they are reduced to two and three in number, 

 and ai'e more rudely constructed. Occasionally they vary 

 a little in different individuals of the same species. In 

 others there are four or five strong plaits, and several 

 finer rudimentary plaits in addition. In form the Yo- 

 lutes are rather inconstant ; the same species being some- 

 times elongately convoluted, the spire proportionably ex- 

 serted, and sometimes shorter and contracted. The same 

 species is often smooth or tubercled, just as a Cone is 

 smooth or granulated ; and the closer and more contracted 

 the growth of an individual, the thicker and more jiro- 

 minently is the shell raised in tubercles. The best cha- 

 racters for the distinction of species are to be found in 



certain parts of the shell, such as the apex, the base, the 

 general contour of the body-whorl, its texture aud sub- 

 stance, the outUue of the aperture, and, above all, in the 

 general design of painting. However much a species 

 may diil'er in its plan of convolution, the parts referred to 

 are the same ; and however variable a species may be in 

 colour, there is but one idea in its pattern and manner of 

 distribution. There is more constancy in the pencil of 

 the Volute, than in the colours of its palette. 



In most species of the genus Voluta the apex is blunt 

 and papillary ; that is, the first two or three whorls, con- 

 stituting the nucleus of the shell, are smooth and polished, 

 forming what has been called a papilla, before the appear- 

 ance of any pattern or sculpture. In V. fulgetmm and 

 papillaris the apex is of a very rude, uncouth growth ; in 

 V. ancilla it has a peculiar rudely acuminated twist ; in 

 /''. /estiva and rupestris it has the appearance of a small 

 ivory ball ; in V. scapha and imperialis the apex is very 

 regularly formed, but still broad and obtuse ; in V. vesper- 

 tilio and nivosa it is slightly nodidous ; in F. volva and 

 reticulata it is papillary but yet acuminated, the sutures 

 being filled up with enamel ; in V. liarpa and Guildingii it 

 is sharp, witliout any papillary structure ; and all these 

 modifications of the apex are accompanied with distinctive 

 featm-es in other parts of the shell, serving to characterize 

 groups, and so to divide the genus into subgenera or 

 sections. Except in the little V. abysslcola, the first 

 living representative of a group of fossil species found 

 abundantly in the Tertiary Beds of Great Britain, there is 

 no transverse sculptm'e in this genus. 



Linnseus included under the head of Voluta all shells 

 having a row of plaits winding round the columella, 

 without considering the nature or habits of their animal 

 occupants. The Tornatell/p, whose shells are entire at the 

 base ; the Auricula, which, inhabiting the banks of stag- 

 nant water, are amphibious ; the Turbinellre, which are 

 canaliculated ; and the Maryinella, whose shell is entirely 

 enveloped by the soft parts, were all associated in the 

 'Systema Natura;' under the same generic type. Even 

 the ' Boats ' and ' Melons,' ' Les Gondolieres ' of Lamarck, 

 are now separated from the Volutes, on account of their 

 ventricose form and texture, to form a genus of them- 

 selves — Ci/mbium ; and some authors have gone so far as 

 to divide this again into Ci/mba and Melo. 



The animal of Voluta difi'ers little from that of Cpn- 

 hium, except in being smaller, less expansile, and more 

 brilliantly coloured. It has the same peculiar lobed dila- 

 tion of the respiratory sijjhon, and the eyes, as in that 

 genus, are rather distant from the tentacles. The species 

 hitherto figured in a living state are brilliantly coloured, 

 but there is no similarity between the pattern or colour of 

 the animal and its shell. The V. vespertilio is of a bright 

 vellow, marked with longitudinal interrupted black Inic? ; 



November, ISiii 



