FUSINiE. 51 



Sub-Family FUSING. 



•"/^ (icnus FUSUS, Lam. 



Shell fusiform ; spire long, acuminate, many whoiled ; aper- 

 ture OA'al, usually striate within; outer lip simple; columella 

 smooth ; no umbilicus ; canal long and straight. Yellowish 

 brown or light horn-color, sometimes with red brown sti'igte or 

 spots ; never banded. Operculum ovate, acute, with apical 

 nucleus. 



The genus as above defined, includes a considerable number of 

 species very closely related in form, sculptui-e and color. The 

 chief discriminative characters used are the proportions of dia- 

 meter to length of shell, the longitudinal ribs and revolving stria^ 

 the presence or absence of a shoulder on the whorls and of tub- 

 ercles. Having examined extensive suites of specimens from 

 single localities I find so much variation in all these respects 

 that I am somewhat at a loss how to treat the species. I much 

 fear that the number of specific forms, which, for want of actual 

 demonstration to the contrary, I must leave intact, will eventu- 

 all}' have to be greatly reduced when more material shall render 

 possible a more philosophic consideration of the specific char- 

 acters. The genus, as restricted to the spindle-shaped forms, is 

 sub-tropical in distribution — the northern species usually de- 

 scribed as Fusus by the older conchologists being now more 

 correctly referred to the family Buccinidre. 



1. Shell with periphery carinate and tuherculate. 

 a. Tubercles produced, spinous. 



F. PAGODA, Lesson. PL 32, fig, 8(). 



Shell yellowish brown. Length, 2-5 inches. 



Near Kiusu, Corea ; in 14 fathoms. — Belcher, Adams. 



The spinose shoulder and the additional lower angle, with the 

 short-spined lateral riblets on the canal distinguish this species 

 sufiSciently from all others. Fusus Japonicus Gray, according to 

 the description must be identical with it. 



F. VAGiNATUS, Jan. PI. 32, figs. 87, 88. 



Yellowish brown ; the spines of the shoulder terminating in 

 longitudinal lamina^. Length, 1 inch. 



C ousts of Provence, Sicily, ^gean Isles, 



