THE MOLLUSCA—HEDLEY. 413 
together constituting a mus onite tip. On the next whorl], which 
is also tabulate, she longitudinal sculpture almost disappears and 
spiral lyrx arise. Subsequencly these latter are cancellated by a 
reappearance of the longitudinal ribs. Aperture oval with a 
broad and reflected columella, no varix. 
Type Rissoa pyrrhacme, Melvill & Standen. 
OBTORTIO PYRRHACME, Melvill & Standen. 
Fig. 6. 
Melvill & Standen, Journ. Conch., viii., 1896, p. 310, pl. xi., 
fig. 70. 
These authors describe from Lifu, Loyalty Islands: ‘A pure 
white ochre tipped shell, whorls eight or nine, much swollen, 
longitudinally ribbed, spirally closely sulcate, aperture round, lip 
simple, a little effuse.” This account is illustrated by a figure too 
small to give details of sculpture, aperture or apex. To identify 
a species from such data is a little hazardous, but the brown point 
to the white shell is a peculiar feature which leads me to see in 
“ Rissoa pyrrhacme” a common New Caledonian shell, long known 
to the local collectors under the, doubtless erroneous, name of 
“Fenella pupoides, Adams.’* I have collected this at Panie, 
New Caledonia, a day’s sail from Lifu, whence Melvill and Standen 
derived Lissoa pyrrhacme. 
Among shell sand on the lagoon 
beach of Funafuti I gathered a 
dozen specimens specifically in- 
separable from the Panie shells 
which I thus identified. They are 
smaller than Melvill and Standen’s 
specimens, being barely four milli- 
metres in length, whereas theirs 
are six, the tips, unlike my Panie 
examples, are faintly and barely 
touched with colour, as if singed by 
fire. In contour they exhibit much 
variety ; two examples are drawn 
to the same scale to illustrate diversity of proportion, perhaps a 
sexual feature. The apex, which I hold to exhibit characters of 
generic importance, consists first of two very minute whorls which 
are almost buried in the succeeding whorl. These are very difli- 
cult to observe, being seen in two instances only in the series 
examined. A globose whorl, Jongitudinally ribbed, sometimes 
only obliquely wrinkled, commences the real spire. This, the 
subsequent whorl and the tip, together form an acicular point to 
the shell when viewed through a hand-lens. The second, third, 
and fourth whorls are tabulate, lending a pagoda aspect to the 
(ON i Schmeltz—Cat. Godeffroy Museum, v., 1874, p. 104, 
