NASSA. 389 



Nassa reticulata, Fleming, Brit. Anim. p. 340. — Brown, lllust. Conch. G. B. 



p. 4, pi. 4, f. i'i. — LovEN, Index Moll. Scandin. p. 14. 

 Tritonium rcticulatum, Middexd. Malac. Rossic. pt. 2, p. 175. 



This abundant shell has an oval-conic shape, is thick, 

 has but little lustre, and is of a very pale brown colour, 

 becoming white towards the outer lip, the back of which 

 is for the most part stained with two dark brown splotches 

 like the commencement of a medial and a basal zone ; a 

 narrow fillet of bluish grey winds beneath the sutural line. 

 Numerous convex pliciform ribs, that vary greatly as to 

 number and approximation, but which, however straight 

 and crowded elsewhere, generally become flexuous and 

 rather distant towards the inner lip, uninterruptedly 

 traverse the shell lengthways, and are decussated through- 

 out (divided as it were into beads) by equidistant spiral 

 sulci, of which there are four or five on the principal turns 

 of the spire, and about thirteen or fourteen usually on the 

 body-whorl. Of these grooves, which traverse ribs and 

 intervals alike, that which runs over the coloured fillet is 

 visually distinctly broader than the rest. The spire, which 

 ends in a tolerably fine point, is composed of seven or 

 eight tapering volutions ; these, although only slightly and 

 simply convex, are strongly defined ; they are not very 

 high, and of moderately rapid longitudinal increase. The 

 body, which is moderately ventricose in the middle, vies 

 with or slightly exceeds the spire in length ; the broader 

 it is the shorter does the spire become ; the basal declin- 

 ation is gradual but convex. The mouth, which fills about 

 one-half of the entire length, is somewhat oval, but is 

 acutely contracted above, and ends below in a short and 

 broadish canal. 



A white enamel lines both lips, and occuj)ies a moderate 

 portion of the ventral side of the body ; the throat, how- 



