CONIDA. 5 
The family, as herein restricted, includes the single genus 
Conus. There are no extinct genera. 
GosaviA, Stoliczka, described as a member of the family, I 
have described and figured as a subgenus of Voluta (Man., iv, 
78). 
Conorsis, Swainson, which may be subgenerically distinct, is 
described and figured in Struct. and Syst. Conch., ii, 188, t. 58, 
f.50. It is an eocene group. 
About 100 fossil species of Conus have been described; they 
are extensively distributed, and first appear in cretaceous strata. 
Dr. Weinkauff has added to his Systematic Catalogue of 
Conus, extensive tables of geographical distribution—in which 
the species found in each province are separately enumerated 
and named. The distribution may be summarized as follows :— 
1. European Province,1 sp. 2. West African,27sp. 3. East 
American Province, 32 sp. 4. So. African, 22 sp. 5. West 
American (North, Central and South), 30 sp. 6. East African 
(including Madagascar and Red Sea), 8l sp. 7. South Asiatic, 76 
sp. 8. East Asiatic (including Philippines and Sandwich Is.), 
133 sp. 9. Australian, 113 sp. 
There are, of course, many duplications in these numbers; 
the distribution of many single forms throughout the sixth to 
ninth provinces, as above defined, indicates that for Conus (and 
for many other carnivorous gastropods) these divisions have no 
real existence. 
Mr. Arthur Adams, in his delightful natural history notes, in 
the Narrative of the Voyage of the Samarang, writes :— 
“The animal of Conus aulicus has the proboscis beautifully 
varied with red and white, and there is a square and very minute 
operculum on the dorsal surface of the hinder part of the foot. 
Its bite produces a venomed wound, accompanied by acute 
pain, and making a small, deep, triangular mark, which is suc- 
ceeded by a watery vesicle. At the little island of Meyo, one of 
the Moluccas, near Ternate, Sir Edward Belcher was bitten by 
one of these Cones, which suddenly exserted its proboscis as he 
took it out of the water with his hand, and he compared the 
sensation he experienced to that produced by the burning of 
phosphorus under the skin. The instrument which inflicted the 
wound, in this instance, I conceive, must have been the tongue, 
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