212 



GALEROPSIS. 



scarcely projects beyond the canal. It is sluggish in its move- 

 ments. As it matures it becomes attached to the coral, on which 

 it lies and adheres with great tenacity, often allowing the foot to 

 be torn away before releasing its hold. The conformation of the 

 lip corresponds exactly with the irregularities of the place of 

 adhesion. Upon removing the animal, scars will be noticed on 

 the coral, more or less worn by the abrasion of the shell, and old 

 specimens will be found to have deposited a shelly base. When 

 removed, the animal is very timid and never wholly expands. 

 It can only partly withdraw behind the columella-shelf, leaving a 

 portion of the mantle and foot exposed. The foot is small, of an 

 oval form, thick and fleshy. The tentacles rapidly taper to a 

 fine point, on which the eyes are sessile a little beyond the middle 

 of their length. The foot is tinged with pale orange, dotted with 

 white along the upper margins. The mantle is colorless centrally, 

 tinged with orange along the margins and dotted with white, the 

 dots crowded anteriorly and becoming more and more remote 

 posteriorl3\ The operculum is of a pinkish violet color. The 

 foot has a well-developed duplication in front. Such is the 

 description given by Mr. W. H. Pease, =*= who places the species 

 in Bhizochilus proper ; but it appears to me to differ from that 

 genus in the excavated, shelf-like columella, the expanded con- 

 tinuous lip of the adult (very like Concholepas) and in not closing 

 up its aperture with shelly matter when mature. In the expanded 

 lip, flattened columella and tooth-like projection of the basal 

 margin of the latter it well agrees with Hupe's genus Galeropsis, 

 a tertiary fossil, the type of which 1 figure : 



Galeropsis Lavenayanus, llupe. PI. {'>!. figs. 887, 388. 



It also lias considerable affinity with Mr. (labbs' cretaceous 

 genus Lijsis (which I have already figured and described). 



R. MADREPORARUM, Sowb. PI. 61, figs. 389-391, 894. 



White externally, tinged with purple on lip, columella and 

 within the aperture. Length, -Ib-l'^b inches. 



Indian Ocean, Jajian, Central Pacific 



* Am. Jour. Conch., IV, 112. 



