132 MOLLUSCA. 
MELANIA CYBELE (Gould). 
Testa ovata, turrita, crassa, fuliginosa, epidermide velutino induta: 
spira ad apicem valde erosa, anfractibus superstitibus ad tribus 
planulatis, superné tabulatis, et pinnis curtis acutis arrectis ordinatim 
dispositis coronatis: apertura angusta, elongato-ovalis, postice angu- 
lata: intus hvida. 
Melania cybele, Goutp; Proceed. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., ii. 222. 
June 1847. Expedition Shells, 44. 
Anima above mottled grass-green, lemon, and slate-colour, darkest 
centrally, growing paler laterally, where it is lemon-yellow, the dark 
spots arranged longitudinally on the body and neck, but in delicate 
undulating transverse lines on the head ; tentacles slaty and annulated ; 
ocular pedicles large, lemon-coloured ; points of the mantle much de- 
veloped, yellowish and dotted; foot beneath, pale brick-red. 
Sue rather large and solid, dusky black, ovate. It is greatly 
eroded at the summit, and only about three whorls are left. These are 
flattened, with a broad, flat shoulder above, the angle of which is 
crowned by about twelve short, equal, obtuse spines, and these spines 
are the terminations of small, slightly oblique folds of the whorls. 
The epidermis is very delicately striated spirally, and where not 
chafed, the striz will be found garnished with short, equal hairs, form- 
ing a velvet} surface. The aperture is narrow oval, slightly effuse 
in front, and modified by the staging behind; interior livid. Lip 
sharp, and there are few deep revolving furrows in front. 
Length one inch; breadth five-eighths of an inch. 
Inhabits the Feejee and Samoa Islands. Couthouy ; Drayton. 
Probably confounded with M. amarula. That shell is lighter 
coloured, shorter, smoother, and destitute of the velvety epidermis: 
the spines are less numerous, longer and sharper, and stand out some- 
what obliquely; in this species they are erect, and resemble mural 
battlements. 
Figures 154, 154 a, two views of the shell; 154, the animal; 154 ¢, 
the operculum. 
