146 BULLETIN OF THE 



Genus VOLUTA Linn±. 



Valuta Linn(?, Syst. Nat., ed. x., 1758. 



Valuta Lamarck (circumscr.), Prodr. Nouv. Class. Coq., p. 70, 1799; type, Valuta 



musica Linne. 

 Plejona (Bolten) Link, Beschr. Rost. Samml., p. 110, 1807; type, V. hebrcea L. 

 Valuta Gray, On the Volutidce, P. Z. S. 1855, p. 69 ; type, V. musica Linnd. 

 Valuta H. & A. Adams, Gen. Kec. MolL, I. p. 164, 1863 ; type, V. musica Linne. 

 Volutolyria Crosse, Journ. de Conchy L, XXV. p. 99, 1877 ; type, V. musica Linne. 



The type and sole example cited of the genus Valuta when restricted by 

 Lamarck was the V. musica. which consequently cannot be separated from the 

 generic name, whatever be the fate of other species. Among the numerous 

 names which have been applied to the various sections of the Lamarckian 

 Volutes, the name Scaphella of Swainson appears to be the earliest which will 

 be appropriate for those which differ (as M. Crosse and Dr. Gray have shown) 

 from the type by the absence of an operculum and other characters, including 

 their dentition. 



The Volutes of the Gulf of Mexico and the Antillean region are compara- 

 tively few in number, but among them is found the type of the genus in sev- 

 eral very elegant varieties. Among other peculiarities of V. musica the form 

 of the nuclear whorls is very noticeable. They comprise a stout rather blunt 

 coil of four or five compact regular well-shaped whorls, somewhat like the tip 

 of a Megaspira, generally of a brilliant orange-yellow or its complement, a livid 

 purple, with its initial whorl perfectly regular, its tip in perfect unworn speci- 

 mens about 0.3 mm. in diameter. In a large series, varying greatly in other 

 respects, I have found only trifling modifications of the nuclear whorls, which 

 present a marked difference from the blunt irregular mammillate tip of most of 

 the species generally included under the old signification of Valuta. The young 

 shell with two or three whorls and its nucleus I have found more uniform in 

 its characteristics, when not modified by wear or acid, than the adult shells in 

 this family. Unfortunately I have never been able to examine a very young 

 specimen of this species, which would doubtless give us the normal number of 

 plaits (five ?), which cannot be determined from the adults. 



Among the specimens in the U. S. National Museum are three which were 

 referred by Dr. Carpenter with a query to a variety of Valuta musica, but which 

 on careful study present characters which seem incompatible with that hypoth- 

 esis. All are beach shells. Two were collected by Berlandier in 1847, on the 

 coast of Texas, near a place called Mesquital. The other was obtained by 

 Arthur Schott, at Carthagena, New Grenada, during Lieut. Michler's expedi- 

 tion to Darien. It measures about 32.0 by 53.0 mm., and the length of the 

 aperture is 45.0 mm. The shell is lighter than a Valuta musica of the same 

 size ; the columellar lip is straighter, with smaller and more numerous plaits ; 

 the outer lip is marked with six purple brown spots, the throat is of a yellow- 

 ish cream-color. The exterior of the whole shell is marked with sharp distant 

 grooves ; toward the canal the interspaces rise as rather strong threads. The 



