46 



RANDOM NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY. 



The Shell-Bearing Mollusca of Rhode 

 Island. 



BY HORACE F. CARPENTER. 



Chapter XVII. 



47. LiTTORINA IRRORATA, SaY. 



Syns. : 



Turbo irroratus, Saj. Jour. Acad. Sci., 

 Phila., n., 239, 1821. 



Phasianella sulcata, Lam. Animaux sans 

 Vert., VII., 54, 1822. 



Littorina sulcata, Desha3'es. 



Shell thick, greenish, with numerous 

 raised, revolving, equi-distant lines, dotted 

 alternatel}' with brown and white spots, 

 soriie round and others like a little dash ; 

 the lines growing larger and more raised as 

 they approach the bodj' whorl ; spire 

 acute ; aperture white, the outer lip thin 

 and lineated with chocolate, the inner lip 

 3'ellowish brown. Length one inch, 

 breadth three-quarters. 



This shell is of southern distribution, 

 ranging from Maryland to Florida, and the 

 northern shores of the Gulf of Mexico. 

 The finest specimens 1 have ever seen were 

 sent me b}' Mr. John Ford, of Philadelphia, 

 who obtained them at Atlantic City, N. J., 

 and was surprised at finding them so far 

 north. (See Mr. Fords article in the 

 March number of Random Notes, page 21.) 



The reader may ask, why, after the above 

 remarks, do you include this species among 

 the Rhode Island Mollusca ? In repl}' I 

 quote from Verrill's Invert. An. oj Vineyard 

 Sound, page 357, 1874: "Vineyard 

 Sound, sparingly. Long Island Sound, 

 near New Haven, rare. Stratford, Conn., 

 on high sedge (Linsley). Huntington, 

 Long Island, (S. Smith). Many of the 

 shells of this species found on our shores 

 have undoubtedly been brought from Vir- 

 ginia and Maryland with the southern oys- 

 ters planted in our waters, but it is proba- 

 bly indigenous in certain localities." There 

 are probably more southern oysters planted 

 in Narragansett Bay and Providence River 

 than in any other spot in the world, yet 

 with all our facilities for examining them, I 

 have never heard of Littorina irrorata 

 being found, dead or alive, in Rhode Island. 



Genus Lacuna, Turton. 



Etym. : 



Lacuna, a fissure. 

 Syns. : 



Temana Leach. 



Dist., sixteen species. 



Shell small, ovate conical, thin ; aper- 

 ture semilunar ; columella flattened, with 

 an umbilical fissure. One species only in- 

 habits Rhode Island, belonging to the 



Sub-genus Epheria, Leach. 



48. Lacuna (Epheria). Vincta, ? 

 Montague. 



Syns. : 



Turbo vinctus, Mont., Turt., Wood., 

 Dillwyn, etc. 



Turbo quadrifasciatus, Fleming. 



Lacuna pertusa, Conrad. 



Lacuna vincta, Gould, DeKay, Stimpson, 

 and others. 



Shell ovate conic, encircled by four or 

 five purplish-brown bands and very numer- 

 ous minute undulating lines ; spire pointed, 

 composed of five whorls, separated b}' a fine 

 sutural line of a ding}' white or purplish 

 horn color ; aperture nearly orbicular ; 

 outer lip sharp, thin ; inner lip white, flat- 

 tened and excavated by a smooth crescent- 

 shaped groove, terminating in an umbilicus. 

 Length one-half inch, breadth three-tenths. 



New York to the Arctic Ocean ; 

 Greenland, Iceland, Lapland, Scandinavia, 

 Great Britain, France ; Pacific Coast to 

 Puget Sound ; Long Island Sound ; AVatch 

 Hill, R. I. (four to five fathoms) ; Vine- 

 3'ard Sound ; Buzzard's Ba^' ; very abun- 

 dant north of Massachusetts Ba}' ; Maine 

 to Labrador. 



The names of many shells, as well as of 

 animals and plants well known to natural- 

 ists in Europe, have been applied to Ameri- 

 can species by European and American 

 authors, because they resembled at first 

 sight those with which they were previously 

 acquainted. Upon closer examination, 

 naturalists find those species which were 

 considered identical with those from other 

 countries, to be entirely distinct, and con- 

 sequently have to be re-named, while their 

 former names, together with their syno- 

 nyms, are dropped, as they J^pply to other 

 species. Many naturalists are of the opin- 

 ion that there are no species of animal or 



