LACHESIS. 313 



Lachesis mi'nima"^, Montagu. 



Buccinum minimum. Mont. Test. Br. (i.) p. 247, t. 8. f. 2. L. minima, 

 F. & H. iii. p. 377, pi. ci. f. 7. 8. 



Body yellowish, speckled with flake-white : pallial tube long- 

 and cylindrical: tentacles extensile (short and club-shaped 

 when the animal is at rest), diverging from their base at an 

 acute angle, compressed in front and behind : eyes small, on 

 the extremity of stalks which extend about halfway up the 

 tentacles: foot comparatively long and slender, although shorter 

 than the shell, squarish and double-edged in front with small 

 angular corners, becoming narrower behind, and ending in a 

 bluntly pointed tail. 



Shell oblong, solid, opaque, and rather glossy : sculpture, a 

 broad rib or callus behind the outer lip, and narrower longi- 

 tudinal ribs on all the whorls except the hrst; these ribs seldom, 

 however, cover the last half of the body- whorl ; when they do 

 so, 9 may be counted on that whorl, and 10 on the next ; they 

 are crossed by broad and flattened spiral ridges, w^hich are 

 defined by impressed lines or striae (15-20 on the body-whorl, 

 and 4 on each of the preceding four whorls, the first or apical 

 whorl being closely and microscopically striated in the same 

 direction) ; the ribs consequently become more or less nodulous 

 or tuberculated ; marks of growth close-set: colour that of 

 cotfee or reddish-brown, varjing in intensity : spire abruptly 

 pointed ; apex globular, twisted on one side : whorls 5-6, 

 rather convex, compressed upwards ; the last occupies four- 

 sevenths of the shell : suture distinct, but not deep : mouth 

 oval, somewhat expanding outwards ; length (exclusive of the 

 canal) two-fifths of the shell: canal bending a little to the 

 left, terminating at the base in a deep rounded notch with a 

 thick edge : outer Vp curved, slightly inflected on the peri- 

 phery, plain-edged ; throat furnished with half a dozen tooth- 

 like ridges or plaits, the largest of which is close to the canal : 

 inner lip rather thin and narrow, sjiread over the pillar and 

 side of the canal, indistinctly united with the outer lip ; there 

 is no trace of an umbilical chink, the base being even and 

 rounded: pillar obtusely angulated at the entrance of the 

 canal : operculum vellowish, closely and finely striated in the 

 line of growth. L. 0-2. B. 0-1. 



Var. pallescens. Of a paler colour, and occasionally milk- 

 white. 



* The smallest (viz. of the Buccina). 



VOL. IV. P 



