ODOSTOMIA. 269 



O. ACUTA, Jeftreys. 



Conic, smooth, distinctly umbilicated ; more or less thin, 

 usually slender, and stained with vinous red, rarely snow-white 

 and broader based ; whorls flattish, of rather slow increase ; apex 

 acute. Periphery of the body almost always angulated. Mouth 

 sraairj about half as long as the spire : pillar lip greatly arched, 

 only narrowly reflected ; tooth prominent : throat smooth. 



Plate XCVII. fig. 8, 9. 

 Odostomia acuta, Jeffreys, Ann. Nat. Hist, new sor. vol. ii. p. 338. 



A typical specimen of this pretty species cannot well be 

 confused with any of its British congeners. It is turreted- 

 couic, smooth, shining, a little transparent, and move or 

 less stained with vinous flesh-colour, especially upon 

 the principal volutions. The spire, which acutely tapers 

 to a more or less sharp point, is composed of six rather 

 slowly increasing turns that are sometimes almost flattened, 

 at other times a little rounded below and much tapering 

 above, where they are at most but moderately, and more 

 frequently are but slightly convex : their suture is but little 

 oblique, and profoundly excavated. The periphery of the 

 body-whorl, which is only about half as long as the spire 

 (or at most occupies two-fifths of the entire length) is more 

 or less angulated ; the basal declination is abrupt, yet 

 more or less rounded. The mouth is small, only occupying 

 from one-third, at most, to one-fourth of the ventral length : 

 it is of an ovate-acute figure, being peaked above, and 

 cither rounded or subangulated at the anterior extremity : 

 the throat is quite smooth. The outer lip is simple, acute, 

 arcuated, and not expanded. The pillar lip is thin, rather 

 long, greatly arcuated, and but narrowly reflected : it is 

 flanked bv a linear indentation which terminates in a dis- 



