VO l889."'] PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 313 



novel craft was freighted with the larval shells of some form belonging 

 to the Volutidce, bat iu which the calcification appears to proceed equally 

 and simultaneously from the peristome of the protocouch, so that the 

 apex, while indicating that a protocouch had existed, did not present a- 

 raised point due to calcification along the columella of that protocouch, 

 as in Scaphella magellanica, From careful comparisous, I find the only 

 known species belonging to the region where this ovicapsule was ob- 

 tained which is not excluded by the character of its nucleus from iden- 

 tification with the larvae contained therein, is 8. brasiliana, which ha» 

 two plaits ; and I have little doubt that to that species it should be re- 

 ferred. About twenty-five larval shells were contained in it, each show- 

 ing two plaits. 



This remarkable ovicapsule measures about 55 mm in horizontal diam- 

 eter and 50 mm in vertical height. It was collected at IT. S. Fish Com- 

 mission Station 276G, in 10£ fathoms, sand, off the Rio de la Plata, in 

 south latitude 36° 47' and west longitude 56° 23'. Its specific gravity 

 is almost equal to that of the alcohol iu which it is preserved, and con- 

 sequently it is somewhat lighter than sea-water. Whatever may have 

 been its original condition, the contained air bubble would have made 

 it practically lighter than the water around it, though very slightly so~ 



According to H. & A Adams, in the Genera of Recent Mollusca, Or- 

 bigny states that u the ovicapsule of 8. brasiliana is 3 inches in length." 

 As I am unable to refer to Orbigny's work and thus determine how 

 certainly the ovicapsule he refers to was identified with its parent, the 

 question remains doubtful how far it is to be depended upon. It would 

 seem singular to call a circular hemispherical capsule, like that of Sca- 

 phella, "long," and that adjective would indicate some error of identi- 

 fication. However that may be, if the present ovicapsule, undoubtedly 

 belonging to the Volutidce, does not come from 8. brasiliana, I am en- 

 tirely at a loss to conjecture to what mollusk of this region it can be 

 referred. 



Genus VOLUTILITHES Swaiuson. 



This genus is the Eocene parent of the recent genera of the Volutidce. 

 The V. abyssicola Adams & Reeve is not a typical species, but belongs 

 to a small subsidiary group, having a dentate outer lip. The type of 

 VoluUlith.es is the Voluta spinosa of Lamarck. 



Volutilithes Philippiana sp. nov. 



Plate ix, Fig. 4. 



Shell (not fully adult) small, elongated, fusiform; color rather dark 

 olivaceous-ash color with a pale baud in front of the suture; nucleus 

 Superficially eroded, small, apparently not mammillate or inflated when 

 perfect; whorls six, when adult probably with one or two more, ap- 

 pressed at the suture, somewhat constricted in front of it; sculpture of 

 rounded grooves, coarser on the constricted baud in front of the suture, 



