186 VEBMETUS. 



Subgenus VERMICULARIA, Lam., 1799. 



The animal is thus described by Stimpson : 



" Mantle fringed at its margin with short filaments ; foot very 

 short and broad, dilated into rounded auricles anteriorly ; muz- 

 zle broad, not cleft; tentacula short, conical, with eyes at their 

 exterior base ; an elevated ridge runs along the back, becomes 

 flattened into a membrane at the head, and passes round under 

 the right tentacle, forming a kind of canal, near which is the 

 anus; its color is light brown, with patches and spots of black. 

 Viviparous. The young shell is helicoid and reversed. Oper- 

 culum corneous, black and hard on the inner, and lamellated on 

 the outer surface ; it is surrounded by a thin, membranous, 

 flexible portion, about one-fourth its diameter ; thus it is enabled 

 to close its shell perfectly at the aperture, and yet to retreat far 

 into the narrower whorls." 



V. TORTUOSUS, Solander. PI. 55, fig. 97 ; PI. 56, fig. 1. 



Loosely twisted, whorls flattened or slightly concave on the 

 exterior, smooth, rectangular above and below, margined by a 

 rib, spire short, conical. 



Philippines. 



V. costalis, Rouss., is a synonym. It is doubtful whether this 

 species is distinct from V. lumbricalis ; yet Morch has described 

 vars. unicostalis (fig. 97) and nidificans. 



V. LUMBRICALIS, Linn. PL 55, fig. 98. 



Yellowish chestnut color ; whorls rounded with or without one 

 or two exterior carinae, sometimes with two slight inferior carinae, 



smooth or longitudinally striae. 



Philippines, East Indies. 



This is the well-known type of the family Vermetidae. It is 

 very doubtful whether it should be restricted to oriental speci- 

 mens, as no permanent differential characters appear to charac- 

 terize the forms from other localities which have received distinct 

 names, as for instance, that of the Atlantic coast of the United 

 States and West Indies. Morch has described vars. DIAPHANA, 

 CORNEA, AMPLIATA, RUGULOSA and TERES (= Indicus, Rouss. in 

 part). 



