134 Records of tJie Indian Museum- [Vol. XIV, 



Measurements of type-specimen. 



Total length 



Greatest breadth (without projections) 



Length of spire (on dorsal surface) 



Length of aperture 



Breadth of aperture 



mm. 

 46 

 27 

 18 

 21 

 16 



Type- specimen. M. 11018/2, Zoological Survey of India {Ind. Mus.) : 

 a co-type in the collection of the Geological Survey of India. 



I have examined 9 specimens. They were found in cave-deposits 

 on the eastern slope of the Hsin-Dawng valley. Some of the speci- 

 mens, including the one selected as type and figured on plate XV, 

 are in a very perfect condition. 



Taia elitoralis, sp. nov. 



Plate XV, figs. 4, 5 ; plate xvii, figs. 5, 6 ; 

 plate xviii, figs. 13, 14. 



In this living species the shell is considerably thinner and as a rule 

 smaller than in T. conica, apparently more variable in shape and more 

 regular in sculpture. At any rate in the male shell the spire is rela- 

 tively narrower and more elongate, but there is considerable indivi- 

 dual and sexual variation in this respect. The suture is a little more 

 impressed and not so oblique above the body- whorl. The whorls of 

 the protoconch are still smaller but relatively broader. The ornamen- 

 tation has essentially the same pattern but the squamous processes 

 on the body-whorl are more numerous, more prominent and more spini- 

 form. 



Measurements of shells. 



Total length 



Greatest breadth (without projections) 



Length of spire (on dorsal surface) 



Length of aperture 



Breadth of aperture 



The epidermis is thin. When not stained by the growth of minute 

 algae it is brown on the three last whorls, and practically colourless 

 on the protoconch. It becomes gradually darker towards the anterior 

 end of the shell. The shell-substance is white and translucent, except 

 in the protoconch, in which it is bluish-grey and opaque. There are no 

 dark spiral bands. The interior of the shell is lustrous and has a 

 strong white opalescence. 



The operculum is dark brown, broadly ovoid, somewhat sinuous 

 on the outer margin, and a little produced posteriorly, though the apex 

 is blunt. The inner margin is strongly convex. The external surface 

 is concave, the false nucleus excentric and situated near the outer 

 margin ; the lines of growth are strongly marked. The internal surface 

 is convex, its muscular scar relatively large, and of a broadly ovoid 

 shape, approaching the outer surface of the operculum for a consider- 

 able distance. The inner marcin is membranous. 



