104 



MANUAL or THE MOLLUSCA. 



FAMILY I. SxRoMBiDiE. Wmg-shells. 



Shell with an expanded lip, deeply notched near the canal. Operculum 

 claw-shaped, serrated on the outer edge. 



Animal fiu-nished with large eyes, placed on thick pedicels ; tentacles 

 slender, rising from the middle of the eye-pedicels. Foot narrow, ill adapted 

 for creeping. Lingual teeth single ; uncini, thi'ce on each side. 



The strombs are carrion feeders, and, for molluscous animals, very active ; 

 they progress by a sort of leaping movement, tm-ning their heavy shell fi'om 

 side to side. Their eyes are more perfect than those of the other gasteropods, 

 or of many fishes. 



Fig. 69.* 



Strombus, L. Stromb. 



Etym., stromhos, a top. 



Type, S. pugilis. PI. IV., fig. 1. 



Shell rather ventricose, tubercular or spiny ; spire short ; aperture long, 

 with a short canal above, and truncated below ; outer lip expanded, lobed 

 above, and sinuated near the notch of the anterior canal. Lingual teeth 

 {S. floridus) 7 cusped ; uncini, 1 tri-dentate, 2, 3 claw-shaped, simple.f 



Disir., 60 species. West Indies, Mediterranean, Red Sea, India, Mau- 



* Fig. 69. Strombus auris-Dianae, L. (after Quoy and Gaimard), Amboina. p, pro- 

 boscis, between the eye-pedicels ; /, foot, folded up ; o, operculum ; m, border of 

 the mantle ; s, respiratory siphon. 



+ The lingual dentition of strombus resembles that of aporrhais, and is unlike that 

 of the whelks; but it is more probable that aporrhais is the representative of strom- 

 bus, than that it is very closely allied. 



