116 NEPTUNEA. 



N. LURIDA, A. Ad. 



Shell ovate-vehtricose, cretaceous or dirty white, epidermis 

 thin, brownish, spire shorter than the aperture ; whorls four-and- 

 a-half convex, the last obtusely subangulate behind; aperture 

 large, ovate, livid within ; inner lip smooth, convex, canal very 

 short, open, scarcely reflexed ; lip lirate within, towards the 



margin smooth, behind widely subsinuated. 



Japan. 



" This is the common edible Whelk of the Ainos." Not figured, 

 nor have I seen it. 



N. DESPECTA, Linn. PL 45, figs. 247-254 ; PI. 46, figs. 255-261 ; 



PI. 47, figs. 262-268. 



Shell with a flat shoulder and keel, which is nodulous ; surface 

 covered with irregular revolving striae and riblets ; sometimes 

 longitudinally lamellose. Fawn-brown, lighter or whitish within 

 the aperture. Length, 3-5 inches. 



Norway ; Spitsbergen ; Siberia ; Japan ; Alaska ; 



Greenland ; Iceland ; Newfoundland. 



A circumpolar species, very variable in form and sculpture, 

 and bearing numerous names. It has been confounded with N. 

 antiqua, but appears to me to be distinct. It inhabits colder 

 seas, is not found in any portion of the British ocean, but occurs 

 in boreal Asia and America where the antiqua is not found. 



In the var. striata the revolving sculpture is pretty regular, 

 consisting of alternate larger and smaller stria? or riblets, and the 

 shoulder is destitute of tuberculation. The variety fornicata 

 (fig. 251) usually has the angle of the shoulder with a stout rib, 

 upon which are compressed tubercles, but the striae upon the rest 

 of the shell are more or less obsolete ; sometimes the angle itself 

 is obsolete and the tubercles form the only ornamentation of the 

 surface. This latter variety is still regarded by some good 

 conchologists as a distinct species ; my specimens, however, 

 clearly indicate to me its derivation from despecta. Among the 

 synonyms of var. fornicata may be placed Fusus borealis, Phil, 

 (fig. 554), Chrysodomus lieros, Gray (figs. 252, 253, 255, 256), an 

 extremely lengthened, non-carinated form, which approaches 

 Siplionalia Kellettii, Forbes, Tritonium antiquum, Midd., not 

 Linn. (figs. 251-260), some forms of which are suggestive of 



