26 R. BULLEN NEWTON on 



more or less smooth being covered with longitudinal sinuous lines considerably 

 twisted at the base, the whole being crossed by a continuous series of fine and 

 nearly obsolete spiral striations. 



DIMENSIONS. 



Adult. Young. 



Alt 78 ... 40 



Lat. ... 54 ... 25 



REMARKS. This shell shows affinities with Valuta selseiensis of Edwards 1 

 from the Lutetian beds of England, a species which it is considered also 

 occurs in the Paris basin deposits judging from a specimen figured by Messrs. 

 Cossmann and Pissarro 2 which they determine as Athleta (Neoathleta) bulbula 

 of Lamarck. Although never figured by Lamarck, Valuta bulbiila was 

 recognised as " ovato-fusiformis " in contour, a fact well displayed in the first 

 illustration of the shell by Deshayes 3 but which does not possess the pyriform 

 shape, shortened spire, and thickened callosity of V. selseiensis. 



The Nigerian fossil differs from the British species in its coniform contour, 

 its wider and more depressed spiral region, in the absence of strong, oblique, 

 dorso-basal striations, and its fewer columella plications which, however, are 

 set so far back as to be only visible in fractured specimens. The obscure 

 spiral striations that cover the whorls are sometimes more evident in examples 

 that have been more or less eroded. Following M. Cossmann 4 with regard to 



<_> o 



Valuta selseiensis, the new species here described is placed under Conrad's 

 Athleta which was founded on V. rarispina Lamarck, from the French 

 Miocene; it is clearly very different from Swainson's Volutilitkes* ( = Psepkaea, 

 Crosse, 1871), which was established on Lamarck's V. muricina from the 

 European Eocene. 



OCCURRENCE. Cuttings Nos. i, 6, 10, 12. 



COLLECTORS. Sir F. Lugard, Sir J. Eaglesome and Mr. Kitson. 



1 Mon. Pal. Soc. 1854, pi. 22, figs. 3, pp. 168, 169. 



2 Iconog. Coq. Eocene Paris, 1910-1913, Vol. 2, pi. 45, figs. 205-18. 



3 Desc. Coq. Foss. Paris, 1835, Vol. 2, pi. 90, figs. 13, 14, p. 685. 



4 Essais Paleoconchologie Comparee, 1899, Vol. 3, pp. 140-142. 



8 See R. B. Newton : On Volutllithes'Proc. Mai. Soc. London, 1906, Vol. 7, pp. 100-104, pi- 12, 

 fig. i. 



