196 MR. E. A. SMITH ON MOLLUSCA FROM JAPAN. [Feb. 18, 



longitudinally and a trifle obliquely costate and transversely Urate, 

 sloping at the upper part and a little convex below ; the costae on 

 the upper whorls are coarser and fewer than on the body-whorl, which 

 has about twenty, attenuated below, and not quite attaining to the 

 base : the spiral lirae are four in number on the upper wliorl, two 

 principal ones with a smaller one between them around the middle, 

 and the fourth below at the suture ; on the body-whorl they number 

 about sixteen. The entire surface under the microscope is seen to be 

 minutely cancellated by the lines of growth and excessively slender 

 spiral striae. Aperture narrow, almost half the length of the shell, 

 white within ; lip thin at the edge, tliickened both interiorly and 

 without, and blotched with orange-red on both sides, the spots being 

 the terminations of the transverse bands, without teeth or lirse ; 

 columella smooth, almost rectilinear, but inclining a little obliquely ; 

 sinus well defined, semicircular, situated in the labrum close to the 

 suture. 



Length 8 millims., width 21-, 



Hab. Station 18. Philippine Islands {Cuming'). 



The specimen above described resembles almost exactly the variety 

 contracta, the figure of which in the ' Conchologia Iconica ' is not at 

 all good, the whorls being much too angular and the spiral line 

 scarcely traceable, 



32. Defrancia GRACiLispiRA. (Plate XIX. fig. 25.). 



Shell slender, fusiform, dirty yellowish, faintly banded with livid 

 brown between the costae near the top of the whorls, and stained with 

 the same colour from the middle of the last whorl downwards. Whorls 

 12 ; three nuclear convex, minutely reticulated with raised obliquely 

 crossing lines ; the rest very convex, with a slight concavity, sculp- 

 tured with distinct arcuate short raised lines beneath the suture, also 

 bearing slender oblique costellse (13 on the penultimate whorl), 

 which are crossed by transverse lirse ; these are four to six on the 

 upper whorl, nodulous on the riblets ; nodules compressed, subacute ; 

 last whorl convex above, slender below the middle ; at this point 

 the costellse are becoming obsolete ; and thence downwards the 

 whorl is transversely obliquely liiate ; the lirse are simple, subequal, 

 and rather close together. Aperture narrow, occupying about four 

 elevenths of the entire length ; labrum imperfect, probably incrassated 

 as in the European D. gracilis of Montagu ; sinus at the suture ; 

 columella obliquely tortuous ; canal rather long, narrow, somewhat re- 

 curved. 



Hab. Station 27. 



The slender form, the delicate riblets, the shallow excavation at 

 the u})per part of the volutions, and their convexity are the prin- 

 cipal distinctive characters of this interesting shell. It belongs to 

 the genus Defrancia as restricted by Jeffreys for species with the 

 sinus in the suture and with the apical whorls minutely reticulated. 



33. Daphnella? fuscobalteata. (Plate XIX. fig. 26.) 

 Shell ovately fusiform, yellowish, pale violet or lilac towards the 



