Sel Pe ae ee ee 
‘as 2 
F 
J 
Mr. W. H. Benson on Recluzia, Petit. 413 
emarginate. Further observations are necessary to decide whe- 
ther an obtuse or acute periphery is a sufficient character to 
enable us to pronounce an opinion on the viviparous or oviparous 
habit of a species. I may here remark that on one day J. pal- 
lida was taken without egg-cells, while two days after, the same 
species was provided with them,—a circumstance unfavourable 
to arguments derived from the negative character in other 
es. 
Tanthina incisa, Philippi, has been overlooked by Mérch in 
his list of synonyms. It was described in the ‘ Zeitschrift fiir 
Malak.’ for 1848. The character attributed to the suture is 
found both in J. Carpenteri, Mirch, and J. fragilis, Lamarck. 
Great stress is laid on the depth of the emargination of the 
labrum ; but this is so variable in other species, that it cannot 
be relied on alone for specific distinction. 
Recluzia, Petit. 
Two species of this Ianthid are figured in the ‘Journ. de 
Conch.’ for 1853 ; a third species, figured by Adams, is supposed 
by Mérch to be R. turrita, V. d. Busch, described by Philippi as 
an Janthina in the ‘ Zeitschrift’ for 1848 (not 1847, as stated by 
Morch). A shell found by Bennett in his whaling voyage, near 
the Kingsmill group, to the east of New Ireland, and which he 
names, without a description, Janthina lutea, undoubtedly be- 
longs to this genus. In a line of sea-drift, he says, “fanthine 
were the most abundant of the floating Mollusks. Their num- 
ber was immense, and their floats contributed greatly to the 
white appearance of the froth-line. One species of this family 
was new to me, and is certainly very rare; its shell was yellow, 
rather smaller and more elongated than J. communis, and the 
whorl more prominent and spiral. The contained animal was 
also of a yellow colour, but in the form of its float and in other 
respects it closely resembled the ordinary blue-shelled species*.” 
The species of Recluzia of which the habitats are recorded 
come from Mazatlan, in Mexico, and the Arabian Gulf. Two 
specimens of a small shell, which must evidently be classed with 
this genus, and differing from any species described, were cap- 
tured in a towing net by one of my fellow-passengers, abreast 
of the opening between the Great and Little Nicobar, and about 
sixty miles to the west of it. Unfortunately he had cleared out 
the animals and thrown them away before informing me next 
day of his acquisition ; and I was only able to note that it was 
a new, horn-coloured, shining, turreted shell, pointed at the base 
of the aperture, and with a sinus above the angular base towards 
* Narrative of a Whaling Voyage, by F. D. Bennett, F.R.G.S., 1833- 
1836 (published in 1840); vide vol. ii. pp. 62, 64, and Appendix, p. 298. 
