"5 

 ON LATIRUS ARMATUS Ad. 



By J. COSMO MELVILL. 



(Read before the Society, March ath, i£ 



Miss Edith C. Wilson has presented a small collection of marine 

 mollusca, gathered by herself in the Canary Isles, to the Manchester 

 Museum, Owens College. The majority of the shells call for no 

 special remark, but amongst them is one dead though perfect and well- 

 developed specimen of Latirus armaius Ad., entirely free from any 

 nullipore or other extraneous marine growth, and consequently in a 

 perfect condition, so far as the shell is concerned, for investigation. 



It is a great pity we know so little about the animal. The only 

 item of information vouchsafed us, so far as I can find, is that it is of 

 a red colour. That, of course, is a distinctive attribute of all Latiri 

 proper, but we cannot help hoping that full anatomical details of this 

 much discussed and variable form may be forthcoming at no distant 

 date. In the meantime the following is the history of Latirus armatus 

 Ad. In 1838 Dr. Gray described a form as Turbinella spinosa, which 

 is in all probability this species. The name T. spinosa Martyn being 

 already in use, reduced Gray's name to a synonym, and in 1854 1 Mr. 

 A. Adams described from the Cumingian cabinets eleven Latiri, with- 

 out figures or information as to size and in exceedingly bald and bare 

 phraseology. Amongst these we find: — "Latirus armatus A. Adams. 

 L. testa ovato-fusiformi, umbilicata, spira apertura breviore, fulva, epi- 

 dermide fusca obtecta; anfractibus longitudinaliter plicatis, lira promin- 

 enti transversa {muricata ad plicas) in medico anfractuum ornatis, 

 ultima /iris minutis instructo ; apertura ovali, canali recto, aperio, colum- 

 ella obsolete plicata, plicis quinque, labro intus sulcato, margine crenato. 



Hab. : California (Mus. Cuming). 

 This is an ovately fusiform shell, with a muricated transverse ridge 



in the middle of the whorls, which are covered with a brown 



epidermis." 



Ten other Latiri were described at the same time. 



The one example of the Cumingian collection was in 1866 trans- 

 ferred to the British Museum, and lay neglected and unobserved for 

 some years till in 1873 the Rev. R. Boog Watson received from 

 Madeira an extraordinary shell with large umbilicus and consequent 

 pseudo-distortion of mouth and canal which, acting on advice 

 tendered him by Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., and Dr. Paul Fischer, 

 he raised to the rank of a new generic type, under the name Chascax 

 maderensis Watson. 2 His description is minute to a nicety and exact 



1 Proc. Zool. Soc, 1854, p. 314. 

 3 Proc. Zool Soc, 1873, p. 361. 



