104 MURICIDA. 
SusraAmMity MURICINZ. 
Murex, Linn. 
Spiny rock shell. Syn.—Aranea, Perry. Centronotus, Swn. 
Muricanthus, Swn. Muricidea, Swn. MHaustellum, Klein. 
Brontes, Montf. 
Distr.—200 sp. World-wide, mostly tropical and subtropical ; 
low water to fifty fathoms or more. Jf. tenuispina, Lam. (xliii, 
1). Fossil, 160 sp., commencing with the Eocene. 
Shell ovate or oblong; spire prominent; whorls convex, 
crossed by three or more continuous varices; aperture ending 
below in a canal, which is generally partly closed. 
Murex erinaceus (xliii, 10) is a well-known depredator on the 
oyster-beds of Europe, and is considered one of the most dan- 
gerous enemies with which the ostreiculturist has to contend. 
So destructive is it in the oyster-pares of Arcachon (near Bor- 
deaux), that it is incessantly hunted by the fishermen, who spend 
whole days in destroying it by removing with a knife a portion 
of the foot and the operculum, after which the animal is left to 
die at its leisure or become the prey of other carnivores. The 
Murex seats itself firmly upon the shell of the oyster, and applies 
its rostrum to the surface of the latter, invariably at a point 
near the beak; after which a regular movement of the body to 
right and left ensues during a term of three or four hours, and 
results in piercing a small, round hole through the oyster shell, 
exposing the most essential viscera to the rapacity of the patient 
tunneler. It is believed that the denticles of the tongue are 
applied to the surface to be bored, and then the gyration of the 
animal gradually rasps through the hole; it has been supposed 
by some that an acid solvent is also used in this operation, but 
this is only conjectural. M. Fischer has observed at Arcachon 
that young Murices choose young oysters, whilst adults select 
larger oysters. The bored oyster soon dies or else, exhausted, 
opens its valves, when a myriad of other animals—crabs, mol- 
lusks, worms, fishes—hasten to profit by the fruit of the winkle’s 
labor.—Jour. Conch., 5, 1865. 
The ancients obtained their purple dye from species of Murex. 
The small shells were bruised in mortars, the animals of the_ 
larger ones taken out. Heaps of broken shells of the MW. trun- 
culus, and the caldron-shaped holes in the rocks where they 
were triturated, may still be seen on the Tyrian shore. On the 
coast of the Morea, there is similar evidence of the ancient 
employment of MW. brandaris for the same purpose. 
In the following synopsis of subgenera, the discriminative 
characters used separate widely groups which really appear to 
be closely related: thus, Cerostoma and Pteronotus are inti- 
mately allied, notwithstanding the difference of the operculum ; 

