Whelks and Conekts 265 



which is solid, reddish brown in colour, and rather 

 oiossy, has the whorls crossed by narrow ribs which 

 are themselves crossed by broad, flattened spiral 

 ribs. It occurs at low water and a little below 

 on the rocky parts of the coasts of Dorset, Devon, 

 Cornwall, and the Channel Isles. It has a trick 

 — unusual among the Whelks — of swimming on 

 the surface with the foot uppermost. It is not quite 

 a quarter of an inch in length. 



The Conelets (Conidie) are well represented by 

 twenty-eight species, none of which exceeds 1 inch 

 in leno'th, and few of them attain half that 

 measurement. They are the representatives 

 of the tropical Cones, carnivorous mollusks 

 with a remarkable arrangement of teeth 

 — we might almost say absence of teeth, 

 for the central and lateral ones have dis- 

 appeared and only the marginal ones are 

 left. The shell is conical or spindle-shaped, 

 with a narrow mouth. The Seven-ribbed Conelet 

 (Hcedroplemxc septcmgularis) is distinguished by 

 its 7 waved ribs that cross the body - whorl, and 

 are paler than the red-brown ground colour. The 

 outer lip has a broad but shallow notch, 

 and the amber-coloured operculum is pear- 

 shaped. Its length is little more than half 

 an inch. The south-western and western 

 coasts of Britain and the whole of Ireland 

 between 7 and 25 fathoms, are the habitat 

 of this species. The Red Conelet (Bela 

 rufa), though similar to the last, has several 

 points of difference. It quite lacks the sliglit gloss 

 of that species, the general outline is less conical, the 



