The Volutes and Melon Shells 



The ordinary beach-combing methods may recover a dull, worn 

 Junonia, but a bright, fresh one is rarely to be found in the debris 

 on the sand. 



Have you "confidently looked for Junonias" on the beach 

 at Sanibel? Discouraged friend, so did I, and neither did I. 

 But a friend gave me a fair specimen that a friend of hers had 

 found on the beach at Marco, farther south. Cheer up! Sanibel 

 is too popular; too faithfully are her beaches scanned. Try new 

 places facing the Gulf between Key West and Tampa. Your 

 disappointment if you fail will be lessened by the large collection 

 of other species you are sure to make. 



There is a volute whose position seems to be intermediate 

 between Voluta and Cymbium. This is the large V. mamilla, 

 Gray, whose rounded whorls culminate in a knob-like apex, the 

 nucleus bent to a lateral position and quite hidden from sight. 

 In its juvenile stages this apical whorl is disproportionately 

 large, a huge bulb, which led early conchologists to consider the 

 young shell a monstrosity. 



The thin outer lip of this shell flares, the body whorl is 

 deeply concave, and the columella is drawn away, forming a 

 deep aperture. The lining is orange, the columellar folds and 

 the lip margin have the brighest colour. Length, 6 to lo inches. 



Habitat. — Australia. 



Genus LYRIA, Gray 



The beautiful L. Delessertiana, Petit, represents a small 

 genus half way between the mitres and the volutes. The shell 

 is ovately spindle-shaped, with elegantly tapering spire. The solid 

 whorls are deeply cut with longitudinal grooves. The aperture 

 is narrowly ovate; the columella has numerous cross folds, the 

 lowest two much larger than the rest. This shell looks like 

 a handsome piece of carved ivory. Colour, orange, banded with 

 white. Length, i to 2 inches. 



Habitat. — Madagascar. 



THE MELON SHELLS 



Genus MELO, Linn. 



Shell large, thin, ventricose, ovate; spire short, depressed, 

 with knobbed apex; whorls few, smooth, angled, coronated or 



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