SCISSURELLA. 543 



reflected ; the outer one is acute. The greatest diameter 

 does not exceed the tenth of an inch. 



The opercuhnn is shelly, circular, flat, closely and con- 

 centrically multispiral, and presenting a punctured or 

 frosted appearance on its surface. 



This pretty little shell is of southern and western range. 

 Though by no means scarce in southern localities, it is 

 rarely taken alive, and the animal has as yet been unob- 

 served. It is found at Herm (S. H). Dartmouth in 

 twelve fathoms (M'Andrew and E.F). Fowey (Peach.) 

 Exmouth, Sandwich, Swansea, Tenby (Jeffi-eys). Mr. 

 M'Andrew has dredged dead specimens in fifty fathoms of 

 water, sixty-five miles from land in the southern part of 

 the Irish seas. On both sides of Ireland (W. Thompson) ; 

 Burra island, Arran (Barlee); Dublin bay, Cork (Jeffreys). 



It ranges to the Mediterranean, and is found fossil in 

 both red and coralline crags. 



SCISSURELLA, A. D'Orbigny. 



Shell thin, subglobose, more or less depressed, with a 

 large body whorl and small spire ; surface variously orna- 

 mented with striae and grooves ; mouth rounded, outer lip 

 incised or perforated in the line of a spiral marginated 

 groove which winds round the body whorl ; an operculum. 



Animal unknown. It appears, however, to have been 

 met with by Sars,* and to hold the systematic position 

 which we have assigned to it. 



The minute shells for which this genus was founded are 

 very interesting on account of the close resemblance they 

 bear to the fossil genus Pleurotomaria, indeed it seems 

 * Zeitschrift fur Malakozoologie, 1847, p. 3. 



