312 MURICIDJE. 



from Brittany to the Canary Isles and the Azores, the 

 Mediterranean, and the Adriatic ; depths 4-40 f. 



M. Martin showed me the spawn-cells, attached to 

 the underside of the shell. I have dredged similar cap- 

 sules at Guernsey. These are solitary, barrel- shaped 

 and strongly corrugated ; the ova are elliptical and pris- 

 matic. Specimens of M. aciculatus from the coralline 

 zone are not unfrequently covered Avith a sponge, or now 

 and then with one of the minute tubular Hydrozoa, 

 which gives the shell the appearance of having a hairy 

 epidermis. 



Lamarck^s descriptions are usually too concise or too 

 vague to identify species; but in the present case no 

 doubt can arise, and I must retain the name imposed 

 by him, in preference to the later one (corallinus) of 

 Scacchi. Lamarck received this species from the coast 

 of Brittany, where it is not uncommon ; and it is enu- 

 merated in the list of Collard des Cherres under the 

 name of M. aciculatus. Philippi placed it in the genus 

 Fusus, and referred it to the F. lavatus of Basterot. 

 Sowerby and Beeve called it M. inconspicuus. 



Genus IV. LA'CHESIS^ Risso. PL VI. f. 1. 



Shell having the shape of a short spindle, strong, ridged 

 spirally, and ribbed lengthwise but not varicosely : spire pro- 

 duced ; apex mammiform : outer lip notched within : pillar 

 smooth : canal short, wide, nearly straight, open throughout : 

 operculum oval, bluntly pointed at the base ; nucleus placed 

 at the lower side of the outer lip. 



The species are few and of small size -, they inhabit 

 the littoral and laminarian zones. Risso appears to 

 have ingeniously constructed another genus [Nescea) 

 out of the same type. 



* One of the Fates. 



