STILIFERID^E. 189 



the animal. Several Spirula were found at the same 

 time. It shows the capability of certain shells keeping 

 afloat during so extensive a voyage and for such a long 

 time as must here have been the case. No species of 

 lanthina, except rotundata, has been noticed on our 

 shores with the animal, alive or dead, in its shell. 



Family XVIII. STILIFE'RID^E, (Styli/endce) 

 H. & A. Adams. 



None but the typical genus Stilifer being known, it 

 is superfluous to repeat the characters, which will be 

 presently given in the generic description. This family 

 is evidently distinct from any other, in respect of the 

 quasi-parasitic habits of the animal, its tongueless and 

 suctorial mouth, and the absence of an operculum. 



Genus STI'LIFER*, Broderip. PL III. f. 2. 



BODY spiral, covered with cilia : mantle folded on the right- 

 hand side, so as to form a slight branchial canal, and spread 

 over the base of the shell: head snout-like, furnished with 

 side-lobes, and terminating in an unarmed and suctorial mouth : 

 tentacles cylindrical : eyes sessile, placed on the neck behind 

 the tentacles : foot tongue-shaped, and partly tubular, with a 

 slit in the sole : gill one only ? Sexes separate. 



SHELL oval or elongated, not umbilicate : spire compact, with 

 a stiliform and excentric apex : mouth roundish or oval ; lips 

 disconnected : operculum none. 



The shell resembles the nucleus of that of lanthina -, 

 and the animal is also destitute of an operculum ; but 



* Stake-bearing ; or from its style-like apex. 



