BELA. 353 



seems rather disposed to regard it as such. But the marks of dis- 

 tinction are constant. The flesh color is invariable ; the length of 

 the body whorl proportionally greater, and it is more convex, and 

 less angular ; the folds are more oblique, more rounded, and the 

 beak is shorter, but more curved. 



From B. plenrotomaria it is distinguished by a less dark color, 

 less prominent but closer ribs, more conspicuous shoulder, and l)y 

 its less elono'ated and slender form, and the absence of a notch at 

 the posterior junction of the outer lip. 



It has a general resemblance to pi. 48, figs. 43, 44, of " Brown's 

 Conch, of Great Brit. &c.," which he calls Fusus castaneus. 



Bela violacea. 



Shell purplish-black, longitudinally sub-plicate, transversely striate; whorls six, 

 the last carinated above and with evanescent median folds, the other whorls me- 

 dially carinated ; spire acute ; aperture narrow ; canal short. 



Plmrotoma violacea, Mighels and Adams, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist. iv. 51, pi. 4, fig. 21 



(1842). 

 De!a violacea, Stimpson, Check Lists, 5. 



Shell small, of a blackish-purple color, ovate, with a pale brown 

 epidermis, irregularly sub-plicate, with numerous faint, revolving 

 striae decussated by the incremental strite ; whorls six ; whorls 



Fig. 622. 



of the spire carinate in the middle ; last whorl shouldered 

 by a continuation of the same carina, with the plications ter- 

 minating on its convexity ; spire acute, conic ; suture dis- 

 tinct ; aperture narrow, rather less than half the length of 

 the shell ; labrum simple, sharp, regularly curved, wnth the 

 sinus at the extremity ; canal short, wide. Length, three tenths 

 of an inch ; breadth, fifteen hundredths of an inch ; divergence, 

 forty degrees. 



Casco Bay ; found without the animal, at low-water mark, in the 

 summer of 1840, and subsequently in the stomachs of haddock. 



This species is remotely allied to B. decussata, Couthouy ; our 

 shell, however, is always longer, aperture narrower, and the sculp- 

 ture less regular and distinct ; but it is especially characterized by 

 having the spiral carina far below the suture. (^Mig-hels and Adams.) 



Banks {Willis) ; Massachusetts Bay {Stimpson). 



[Animal, siphon yellowish, one twentieth of an inch ; tentacula 

 short and thick ; eyes black, on exterior side, about two thirds the 

 length of tentacula ; a sinus in the middle of posterior part of disk. 

 23 



