22 



RANDOM NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY. 



The Shell-Bearing Mollusca of Rhode 

 Island. 



BY HORACE F. CARPENTER. 



Chapter XIV. 



Family 30. Caecidse, Carpenter, with 

 one genus. 



Genus Cecum, Fleming. 1824. 



Shell while 3'oung discoidal, when adult 

 tubular, cylindrical, arched, decollated. It 

 is born as a flat, spiral shell, but after mak- 

 ing two or three turns it suddenlj' leaves 

 the spire and grows out in a slighth' arched 

 curve ; soon it drops the spire, plugging up 

 the broken end with a mammillated septure, 

 so that when adult it resembles a tusk, 

 with the small end decollated. They are 

 found in worm-eaten passages of dead shells, 

 and are carrion-feeders. 



33. C^CUM PDLCHELLUM, SxiMPSON. 



Shell clavate, arcuated, contracted at both 

 ends, pale yellowish horn color, and sculptured 

 with about twenty-five strong, rounded 

 ribs, giving the shell a waved appearance ; 

 aperture round, entire ; operculum multi- 

 spiral, of eight whorls, corneous, concave 

 on the outer surface. Length one-tenth 

 inch, breadth one-fortieth at its widest part. 

 It inhabits the Laminarian zone, and was 

 dredged in New Bedford Harbor, adhering 

 to groups of Vermeti, and was described by 

 Wra. Stimpson, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 

 IV., 112, 1851. It probablj- inhabits 

 Rhode Island waters, but has never been 

 found, to ni}- knowledge, its minute size 

 preventing its being collected. 



34. Cecum Cooperi, Smith. 



Distribution, Gardiner's Ba}', L. I., and 

 Vine^'ard Sound, Mass., four to ten fathoms. 

 In 1863 Dr. P. P. Carpenter described a 

 shell which he called Cfficum Cooperi. In 

 1870 Mr. S. I. Smith described and figured 

 a shell which he found in Gardiner's ^ay. 

 in the Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist., N. Y., ix., 394, 

 which he also called Caecum Cooperi. In 

 the March number of Silliman's Journal of 

 1872, Prof. A. E. Verrill, of Yale College, 

 published a list of the species of mollusca 

 found on the dredging expedition of 1871, 

 at Wood's Holl, Mass., which were new to 

 science, and of those previously described. 



but omitted or overlooked in Binnej^'s Gould. 

 (Invert. Mass.,) published in 1870. Among 

 other shells in this list is a caecum, dredged 

 in Vinej'ard Sound. This proved upon ex- 

 amination to be the same as the Caecum 

 Cooperi of Mr. S. I. Smith, but not the 

 original Cooperi of Carpenter. As the spe- 

 cific name was thus pre-occupied, he pro- 

 posed the name of Caecum costatum, Ver- 

 rill. 



The above explanation was read from a 

 paper by the author, on the " Conchology 

 of Khode Island," before the Providence 

 Franklin Society, Nov. 22, 1872. In the 

 Report npon the Invertebrate Animals of 

 Vineyard Sound and Adjacent Waters, pub- 

 lished by A. E. Verrill and S. I. Smith in 

 1874, page 355, Sanderson Smith is credited 

 with having described this shell in Ann. 

 Lye. Nat. Hist., N. Y., vn.,lo4, 1860, with 

 the following remarks : " The first descrip- 

 tion of this species was overlooked by me ; 

 as it antedates the description of the Cali- 

 forniau species to which Dr. Carpenter gave 

 the same name, the present species must be 

 called Cooperi." I have never seen the 

 original description or the shell. 



Family 31. Eulimidae, contains seven- 

 teen genera, many sub-genera, and about 

 four hundred and fift}' species, the greater 

 part of which are fossil. The genus Eu- 

 lima, with forty-nine living and forty fossil 

 species, is represented in New England by 

 one species, the Eulima oleacea, Kurts & 

 Stimi^son, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., iv., 

 115, 1851. It has been dredged in Buz- 

 zard's Bay, several miles from land, in soft 

 gray mud, eight fathoms. It has not been 

 found, to my knowledge, in Rhode Island 

 waters. 



The genus Stylifer, found onl}' imbedded 

 beneath the skin of star fish and sea 

 urchins, is represented in New England b}' 

 one species, Stylifer Stimpsonii, Verrill, 

 Am. Jour. Sci., in., 210 and 283, 1872. Off 

 New Jerse}', thirty-five fathoms ; George's 

 Bank, sixty fathoms ; oflf Block Island, 

 thirteen to twent3'-seven fathoms, 1880. 



Family 32. Turbonillidae, twelve gen- 

 era, is represented in New England by five 

 genera, two of which inhabit Rhode Island. 



Genus Turbonilla, Risso. 



Shell slender, man}^ whorled, elongated, 

 longitudinally ribbed ; apex sinistral ; aper- 



