1879.] MR. E. A, SMITH ON MOLLUSCA FROM JAPAN, 199 



long and 4 broad. Adams describes 'the colour as fuscous. The 

 only fresh specimen that I have seen is of a dh-ty transparent white 

 tint, blotched with light brown at intervals beneath the suture, and 

 indistinctly banded with the same colour a little below the middle of 

 the last whorl, leaving a light zone above it which is visible within 

 the aperture. The cancellation of the surface is composed of about 

 20 longitudinal arcuate costai on the penultimate, crossed by six 

 transverse lira?, rather finer than the costte, on crossing which they 

 are very prettily nodulous ; this cancellation extends over the greater 

 portion of the body-whorl ; and the ribs not being produced quite to 

 the extremity, the cauda is only transversely grooved or lirate. 

 The lip is somewhat thickened exteriorly, thin and crenulate at the 

 margin, arcuate and very faintly sinuated near the suture, and fur- 

 nished within with about 10 short fine lirae at a httle distance from the 

 extreme edge. Columella whitish, only slightly flexuous, and a trifle 

 oblique, covered with a thin smooth callosity which abruptly limits 

 the clathrated surface of the whorl. Adams remarks that " the 

 spire is as long again as the aperture." This is apparently a slight 

 exaggeration, since in the most elongated specimen in the collection 

 it only occupies fj of the entire length. 



39. MuREX soBRiNus, A. Adams. (Plate XX. fig. 30. 

 Murex sohrinus, P. Z. S. 1862, p. 370. 



Siiell subclavately fusiform, whitish, with two rcddish-brovvn 

 bands interrupted by whitish costee ; one, the broader of them, rather 

 below the middle of the upper whorls, and the other beneath the 

 convexity of the last. Whorls 7 ; th.e two apical smooth, rounded ; 

 the rest convex, subangled above, trivaricose, tricostate between the 

 varices and spirally lirated ; lirfe about eight on a whorl, those on 

 the upper part finer than the inferior ones, which are compressedly 

 nodulous on crossing the costas and varices ; the latter bear a single, 

 shortish, upward-directed spine at the subangulatioii of the volu- 

 tions ; the upper whorls seem to be pretty constantly destitute of 

 spines ; the last whorl has a second shorter spine on the varices a 

 little below the middle of the convex part, and two still smaller ones 

 somewhat lower down, those on the antepenultimate varix falling 

 opposite the lower end of the oval aperture, and those on the last a 

 short distance below it on the right ; lower part of the last whorl, 

 with the exception of the end of the cauda, obliquely, -finely, and 

 rather rugosely lirate. Aperture roundly ovate, bluish white, tvvo- 

 banded ; peritreme thin, produced ; canal stained with brown behind, 

 long, slender, a little oblique, very much closed, rather more than 

 half as long as the entire shell. Operculum (fig. 3 a) reddish brown, 

 composed of coarse concentric layers ; nucleus nearly terminal. 



Length 36 millims., diam. 1 1 ; aperture 7 long, and -1| broad. 



Hub. Stations 3 and 30. " Satanomosaki, .55 fathoms; Goto, 

 48 fathoms ; Kuro-Sima, 29 fathoms " {A. Adams). 



This appears to be a species which does not attain to a large size, 

 and is remarkable for the fewness and smallness of the spines. Of 

 the spiral lirse three are generally more prominent than the rest. 



