OF SOUTHERN INDIA. 59 
raised in our case of the Indian species is, that it has the posterior canal more 
strongly marked than is usually observed in the living species of Lato. 
As regards the classification of Hrato next to Cyprea, we need hardly remark 
further, that the animals of both are very similar, as was long since shown by the 
first detailed descriptions of Philippi. Gray (Guide to Moll. Brit. Mus., 1857, p- 74,) 
says, “this genus (referring to Lato) differs from Warginella in haying a rostrum 
or proboscis.” 
L. Reeve in his monograph of Erato (Conch. Icon., 1865) describes 18 species, 
of which he states that their geographical distribution is quite different from that 
of Marginella. Six species of tertiary fossil Hrato are recorded, including the three 
lately noticed by Deshayes from the Paris basin (Tom III, p. 556), and of these 
six species Erato levis occurs also recent in the Mediterranean Sea. From the ereta- 
ceous rocks the following species is, we believe, the only one as yet described:— 
1. Erato VeracHoorensis, Stoliczha. Pl. IV, Figs. 13 and 14. 
Erato testa pyriformi, inflata, antice attenuata, in superficie levigata, spira brevi, 
acuminata ; apertura angusta, S.-formi, ad extremitates effusa ; labro rotundate inflexo, 
postice expanso, interne crenulate-denticulato ; labio antico planato, et ad marginem 
mteriorem dentato. 
The young shell is elongated, ovate; the adult, by becoming posteriorly more 
inflated, globose, and being at the same time attenuated anteriorly acquires a pear- 
shaped form: the surface is smooth and polished. The spire consists of five or six 
volutions, and is so little prominent, that it measures only about one-seventh or one- 
eighth of the total length of the axis. The outer lip is thickened, at the posterior 
extremity expanded, ear-shaped, along its entire length inflexed, and on the interior 
margin densely and finely denticulated. The inner lip is on the columellar place 
flattened, bearing on the lower or inner margin a few small roundish teeth. The 
aperture is narrow, slightly S-form, canaliculated on both ends. 
Besides the very characteristic form and the expansion of the posterior portion 
of the outer lip, the dentition of this species is remarkable, the teeth not being in 
any way elongated, as usually in the genus Cyprea, but more roundish, isolated, 
placed exactly on the sharp margins of the outer and of the anterior portion of the 
inner lip. On the other hand the posterior canal is equally peculiar, being turned 
perfectly upwards, bounded by a thickening of both lips, as usually seen in Luponia, 
but rarely in Hrato. 
Locality.— Near Veraghoor, in Trichinopoly district; four specimens have been 
examined, but none of them has the anterior canal perfectly preserved. 
Formation.—Arrialoor group. 
