62 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE MALACOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



opinion. He was kind enough to reply in October last : — " This shell 

 is unknown to me, and doubtless a new genus. I do not think it 

 belongs either to Pyramidellidte or Scalidae. The nucleus recalls that 

 of a section of Aclis which I named Amhhjspira, from the West Indian 

 region, but the aperture and sculpture are very distinct." 



The animal is unknown, and 1 fear the chances of its being dredged 

 alive are not very great ; it is therefore necessary to draw all con- 

 clusions and inferences from the shell itself. Happily the type is 

 a good, well-grown, and quite perfect example ; and not long ago, 

 in sorting more of the shell-sand, I extracted another unmistakable 

 (though smaller and rather imperfect) specimen. 



The great difficulty is to seek successfully its nearest ally ; and 

 I cannot help thinking that Aclis is its congener, as it harmonises 

 especially with the somewhat reticulate species of the section Graphis, 

 and perhaps this genus should be removed from the Scalidae and 

 constituted as the type of a separate family, Aclididae. 



I still consider Constantia not far removed from our species ; the 

 type of this genus is, however, perforate, and the form of the aperture 

 quite different from my shells, in which, likewise, the character 

 of the reticulations are not as in Scala, where longitudinal lamellae 

 often interlaced with inferior spiral liras predominate, the sculpture 

 and lirations of intertexta are uniform, and the points of junction 

 between these lirae, longitudinal and spiral, are slightly beaded. 

 It is therefore in this particular quite unlike any Scala or Constantia, 

 and still more unlike Aclis, though the nucleus does resemble that 

 of this last genus, as is corroborated by Dr. Dall. 



Deciding, then, for the present, if only as a temporaiy arrangement, 

 to consider this shell as belonging to the above alliance, I may 

 characterize it as the type of a new genus, as follows : — 



BERTHAIS, gen. nov. 



Testa fusiformis, gracilis, albida, delicata, parva, imperforata, 

 anfractus 9-10, apicalibus tribus minutis, vitreis, laevibus, cylindricis, 

 caeteri ad suturas multum impressi, pulcherrime regulariter decussati 

 vel reticulati, ultimus anfractus paullum prolongatus, apertura 

 obliqui-ovata, labrum paullum effusum, columella simplex. 



Beethais INTERTEXTA (Melv. & Stand.). Fig. I. 



Scala ( Constantia) intertexta, M. & St. : Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., 

 ser. VII, vol. xii, pp. 305, 306, pi. xxii, fig. 6. 



As already stated, as suggested by Mr. E. A. Smith, it is almost 

 certain that Onoha egregia, A. Ad., is also a species of BerthaU, to be 

 known in future as B. egregia (A. Ad.). 



The species was thus characterized ' by its author : — 



1 Ann. & Mag. Xat. Hist., ser. iii, vol. xi (1863), p. 349. 



