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NOTE ON MUREX MANCINELLA, LINN. 



By E. A. Smith, I.S.O. 



Read 13th December, 1912. 



The Linnean collection, preserved in Burlington House, London, 

 contains thi'ee shells labelled Murex mancinella. They were mounted 

 upon wooden tablets by Mr. Hanley wlien he wrote Ids work Ipsa 

 LiniKsi Co7ichylia, and two of thera are marked in Linne's hand- 

 writing with the number 544 of the twelfth edition of the Systema 

 Natures. 



One of the three specimens is the Purpura mancinella of Lamarck' 

 and most other authors, and the other two are Drupa comics, Eolten, 

 of which Purpura elata of Blainville, and Ricinula spectrum, lleeve, 

 are synonyms. 



'I'he Purpura mancinella of authors does not agree with Linne's 

 description in the tenth edition of the Systema, for the columella is 

 not "transversim striata", and nothing, moreover, is said as regards 

 colour. The " apertura edentuhi " is fairly descriptive, for tlie red 

 thread-like lines within the mouth could hardly be termed teeth, yet 

 one would expect such a conspicuous feature to have been referred to 

 if Linne had the shell before him at the time. 



The Murex mancinella of the Museum Ulricse published six yeax's 

 after the tenth edition of the Systema is certainly, in part, the 

 mancinella auctorum, for this is shown by the " spiiiae brevissimae 

 purpurascentes ", which is a characteristic feature of that species. The 

 " fauce lutea, transversim striata" also seems to indicate this species. 



The description in the twelfth edition of the Systema, according 

 to Hanley,' would apply to "an immature example of Ricinula 

 spectrum ", and he states that there are two adult examples of it in 

 the Linnean cabinet, but lie does not mention the existence of the 

 specimen of mancinella, Lamk., which is there also. Tlie quoted 

 reversed figures in Rumphius,^ however, in my opinion, liardly 

 represents Ricinula spectrum, and cannot with certainty be referred 

 to any species.^ The figure in Argenville,^ quoted by Linne in this 

 edition of his work, is probably an enlarged but poor illustration of 

 Lamarck's Ricinula morns. 



From the above notes it will be seen that there is a curious com- 

 plication, and it becomes a question whether either of the two 

 shells, mancinella auctorum or cornns, Bolten (= elata, Blainville, and 

 spectrum, lleeve), should be retained as the Linnean species. The 

 Murex mancmella of the tentli and twelfth editions of the Systema 

 and the Museum Ulricse is certainly nuide up of at least three s])ecies, 

 namely, mancinella, auct., cornus, Bolten, probably, and mortcs, Lamk. 



^ Kiener, Coq. Viv., pi. xvi, fig. 46. 



- Ipsa Linn. Conch., p. 295. 



^ Amboin. Raritcitkamer , 1705, pi. xxiv, fig. 5. 



■* It is not unlike Thais cchiiiata (Blainv.). 



* Hist. Nat. Lithol. Conch., 1742, pi. xx, fig. H. 



