OF NORTH AMERICA. 177 



SHELL: Thin, oblong-ovate, elongate-ovate or fusiform, much 

 compressed ; surface sculpture as in columella ; color brownish horn ; 

 whorls 4-4 */2, very flat-sided, especially the body whorl, which is very 

 long and much compressed; spire moderately short, acute, narrow; 

 aperture elongate-ovate, the sides almost parallel in the center, broadly 

 rounded anteriorly and bluntly angled posteriorly ; inner lip narrow, 

 thin, almost straight, the columellar callus forming a rather thick de- 

 posit on the parietal wall; there is a very small umbilical chink; axis 

 feebly gyrate. 



Length. Breadth. Aperture length. Breadth. 



8-9 4.50 mill. Poey 



13.00 5.75 8.00 4.10 " Pinar del Rio 



13.00 6.00 8.25 3.25 " 



13.00 6.00 ' 8.00 3.50 " 



TYPES : Location not ascertained. 



TYPE LOCALITY : Lagunas del Potrero, Omoa en Guines, Havana 

 Province. 



ANIMAL, JAW, RADULA AND GENITALIA : Unknown. 



RANGE: Island of Cuba. A tropical species of the West Indian 

 region. 



RECORDS. 



CUBA: Guines, Havana Province (Arango; Poey). Pinar del Rio Prov- 

 ince (Palmer and Riley). 



GEOLOGICAL RANGE: Unknown. 



ECOLOGY: Not recorded. 



REMARKS : This Cuban columella was at first thought to be refer- 

 able to Von Martens' championi, but a comparison of specimens in 

 the Smithsonian Institution from Pinar del Rio, which have been 

 compared with undoubted championi from Central America, reveals 

 considerable difference, the Cuban species being narrower, with a more 

 elongate aperture, a longer spire, and a perfectly straight columellar 

 margin. Von Martens describes his species as with a columella "almost 

 vertically ascending." This feature is not exhibited in his figure (Biol. 

 Cent. Amer., pi. 19, fig. 12), nor is it shown in specimens from Nica- 

 ragua (plate XXIV, figure 20). The general shape of the Cuban 

 shell, which in outline strongly resembles some forms of obrussa and 

 which is quite unlike the usual form of columella and its varieties, 

 leads the writer to consider it a valid species. 



In 1858 Poey described a shell from Guines, Cuba, which has 

 been almost entirely overlooked by modern writers. A study of his 

 description indicates a shell of the columella group, and there seems 

 to be no question but that the shell herein described is the one named 

 by Poey. His original description is as follows : 



