HALIOTIS. 95 



Of this poorly characterized species Sowerby says : Narrower than 

 varia, pustulata, and with fine sharp striae intersecting wrinkles and 

 deep lines of growth. The rugose sculpture is finer and closer, and 

 wants the pustules of varia. 



H. VARIA Liune. PL 17, fig. 99 (type); pi. 17, figs. 91, 93, 100 

 (vars.); pi. 23, figs. 53, 54, 55. 



Shell oval or oblong-oval, convex, distance from apex to margin 

 about one-eighth the entire length of shell ; sculptured with numer- 

 ous very unequal spiral cords ; crossed by low radiating folds form- 

 ing tubercles on the cords ; open perforations 5, situated on moderate 

 tubercles. 



The right margin is straighter than the left, but still convex ; the 

 shell is rather convex especially when well-grown, and in many 

 examples the spire is somewhat conoidally elevated ; it is rather 

 solid and strong. The color-pattern is various, but usually consists 

 of broad white or greenish rays upon a dark chocolate, olive-brown 

 or green ground. The surface-sculpture is excessively variable, but 

 in the typical form consists of " swollen nodules ranging across the 

 shell in oblique waves." The spire is rather large. Inside silvery, 

 generally with very little iridescent color ; rather indistinctly spirally 

 furrowed, and having slight excavations or pits at the positions of 

 the principal tubercles of the outer surface ; columellar plate rather 

 broad and heavy, flattened, and in adult shells sloping inward ; not 

 truncated at base. Cavity of spire visible from below. Perfora- 

 tions varying from round to oval. 



Length 50, width 35, convexity 13 mill. 



Length 47, width 31, convexity 12 mill. 



Length 60, width 41, convexity 18 mill. 



Australia and Philippines to China ; Mosambique, Red Sea, Island 

 of Bourbon, Mauritius, Ceylon, Nieobar Is., Malay Archipelago. 



H. varia LINNE, Syst. Nat. xii, p. 1256. REEVE, Conch. Icon., 

 f. 4. SOWB. Thes. Conch, v, p. 28, f. 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 61. WEIN- 

 KAUFF, Conchyl. Cab., p. 10, t. 3, f. 4. MARTENS in Mobius, Reise 

 nach Mauritius, Moll., p. 298. H. semistriata REEVE, Couch. Icon., 

 f. 5 la, b, c. H. viridis REEVE, 1. c. f. 40. 



A widely dispersed form, variable in both color and sculpture. It 

 may be distinguished from the following several species by the nar- 

 row unequal spiral cords, which are rounded, not broad and flat- 

 tened, and bear unequal tubercles at uncertain intervals. 



