1^8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [VOL. 50 



delicate pattern of a fine Persian rug. The spines when perfect are 

 about 4 mm. long. There is no species noted in the monographs to 

 which it is at all closely allied specifically. 



Genus BASILISSA Watson 

 BASILISSA BABELICA Dall, n. sp. 



Shell large, white, acutely conic, with about twelve whorls; apex 

 defective, early whorls convex, with a peripheral row of nodules, 

 which, in successive whorls, descends to the level of the suture 

 which it overhangs, developing into a marked keel, which, at first 

 nodulous, becomes later merely crenate ; sides of the whorls, except 

 near the apex, flat ; the base almost flat, the whole surface finely and 

 closely spirally striate ; incremental lines between the sutures gently 

 concave forward ; base compressed at the peripheral keel, within 

 which it is slightly convex to a keel which borders a deep, 5 mm. 

 wide funicular umbilicus with vertically striate walls ; incremental 

 lines of the base sweeping forward from the peripheral keel and 

 receding to the umbilical keel ; aperture roughly quadrate, with a 

 continuous thin, sharp margin, which exhibits a sulcus correspond- 

 ing to the umbilical keel and angles at the suture and peripheral 

 keels ; the basal margin leads the others when intact ; operculum 

 horny, pale yellow, externally concave, with a somewhat ragged 

 periphery and about four whorls. Alt. of shell, 37 ; of aperture, 8 ; 

 maximum diameter of shell, 25; of aperture, 12 mm. 



Station 4972, in 440 fathoms, and 4973, in 600 fathoms, August 

 30, 1906, off Yokohama, Japan. IT. S. Nat. Mus., 110,504 and 

 110,505. 



This is the largest and most striking species yet described. B. 

 supcrba Watson comes nearest to it, but is much smaller and less 

 attenuated. 



In the same cast was obtained Lfptotliyra (Phancrolcpida) tran- 

 scnua Watson, which I separate from the typical Leptothyras on 

 account of the absence of spiral sculpture, the peculiar shagreen-like 

 surface, and the operculum, in which the whorls are not, as in the 

 typical Lcptotliyra, visible externally and flat, but are concealed by a 

 callous deposit and have a concave surface. These features, as such 

 things go, are at least sufficient for sectional distinction. 



Genus MICROGAZA Dall 



MICROGAZA FULGENS Dall, n. sp. 



Shell larger than M. rotella Dall, but of much the same general 

 aspect; depressed turbinate, brilliantly polished, very thin, the pearly 



