GASTEROPODA. 19 



2. Erato maugeri^. Graij, Tab. II, fig. 11, a — b. 



Erato maugeri.e. S. Wood. Catalogue 1842. 



— G. Sowerhy. Conch. lUust. fig. 57, 1841. 



E. Testa conoided, subanffidatd, lavigatd politd ; spirdbrevi, obtusd ; anfractibiis, tribus ; 

 aperturd llneatd, basi SHbcanalicidato ; labro denticulafo ; columelld mbplicatd. 



Shell small, conoidal, subangulated, smooth, and glossy ; spire short ; volutions 

 3 — 4 tumid, base subcaniculated ; outer lip denticulated, with a few plaits upon the 

 lower part of the columella ; outer lip a little thickened in the middle. 



Axis, \ of an inch nearly. 



Locality. Cor. Crag, Sutton. 



Red Crag, Sutton. Recent, West Indies. 



I have only one specimen from the Red Crag, but it is by no means rare in the 

 Coralline beds. There is, I think, no doubt of its identity with the West Indian 

 shell. It has three folds at the base of the columella, with four or five denticulations 

 above them ; the outer lip is rather thickened in the middle. One of my specimens 

 from the Cor. Crag has a tinge of colour remaining in the outer lip. The principal 

 differences between this and the preceding {JE. IcRvis) are its size and its more tumid 

 and angular form of volution. The figures are slightly enlarged. This species 

 is also from Touraine, in Mr. Lyell's cabinet. 



VoLUTA,* Linnmis, 1767. 



Mite A. Flem. 1828. 

 Fasciolaeia. Conrad. 

 Haeptjla. Swains. 1840. 



Gen. Char. Shell subovate, or elongato-fusiform, more or less ventricose, sometimes 

 angulated, thick, strong, and generally large, smooth, striated, or tuberculated ; apex 

 obtuse or mammillated ; outer lip simple, sometimes thickened within ; apei'ture gene- 

 rally large and linear, terminating in a short and deep notch ; columella with several 

 folds, of which the lowest is the largest. 



Shells of a truly mammillated apex are not as yet known below the Miocene forma- 

 tions. Those species hitherto considered as Volutes, from the Eocene deposits, have an 

 elevated spire and an acuminated apex ; they differed probably in their animal inha- 

 bitants, and may constitute another genus. 



A species in Mr. Lyell's cabinet from the Eocene formation, at Claibourne, 

 Alabama, and also one in the possession of Mr. Edwards, from Bracklesham, appear 

 to preserve an intermediate character, having a small papilliform apex, showing the 

 transition from the acute to the obtuse. 



The recent species belonging to this genus are generally natives of the warmer 

 regions of the globe, although one large species of true Volute, with an emarginate 

 base, has been found on the southern coast of Patagonia, in lat. 51° S. 



* Etym. Volutus, rolled, a voho. 



