320 PYHAMIDELLID.E. 



Mr. Thompson records it as having occurred among 

 shells gathered by Mrs. Hancock at Bundoran on the 

 coast of Donegal. It is a South-European species. 



OTINA. 



Shell ovate, of \'ew whorls, the first very large and 

 ventricose, those of the spire very small ; aperture large, 

 oblong, entire. No ojierculum. 



Animal bulky ; tentacles nearly obsolete, eyes sessile on 

 the large obtuse head ; mantle not reflected, simple-edged ; 

 foot very large, oblong, rounded at both ends ; an armed 

 tongue and jaws; branchial plume single? 



The type of Otina (indicated, but not described, by 

 Gray), is the Velutina otis of British conchologists. There 

 can be no question of the propriety of constituting a dis- 

 tinct genus for this curious mollusk, although the shell 

 alone would scarcely warrant such a rank. We adopt 

 the appellation proposed by Mr. Gray, at the same time 

 entering our protest ngainst the practice of publishing 

 generic names without definitions, or at least a clear state- 

 ment of reasons for constituting the genus ; in no cases 

 can such a name have any authority or priority, until 

 a definition be published. The proceeding is mischievous, 

 and liable to great abuse, since it implies neither knowledge 

 nor research on the part of the offender. In this particular 

 instance the name appears in Mr. Gray's list of genera. 

 It occurs in the form apparently of a sub- genus of Velu- 



which we are not aware has been found in the Antilles. The Pi/ramis trtmcatus 

 of Brown (111. Conch. G. B., p. 15, pi. 8, f. 31), said to have its entire surface 

 covered with strong longitudinal striae, is, perhaps, this spurious species ; the 

 description of it in other respects agrees fairly enough with the British one. The 

 figure given in the same work (pi. 9, f. 49, 50) of the Pi/ramis siJjfruncatus is 

 certainly not the Ttirho stibtruncatus of Montagu, but the rudeness of the drawing 

 prevents our determining what it is designed for. 



