i8 5 

 HERVIERA, A NEW GENUS OF PYRAMIDELLIDiE. 



By JAMES COSMO MELVILL, M.A., F.L.S., and ROBERT STANDEN. 



(Read before the Society, March 8, if 



Amongst the marine mollusca described by us in October, 1896, from 

 the Loyalty Islands, was a very erratic member of the Pyramidellidaj, 

 which, with considerable diffidence, we provisionally placed in the 

 genus Pyrgulina, under the name P. gliriella. This was a very minute, 

 obtusely-oval, rather solid shell, thickly ribbed longitudinally, purplish 

 pink in colour, and superficially much like Zafra pupoidea A. Ad. in 

 miniature, but with the aperture oval, peristome continuous, thickened, 

 columella strongly uniplicate. 



Another species, to be described below, having recently come to 

 hand, prompted us to examine the original type more closely, and we 

 now decide that it is necessary to propose a new genus for their 

 reception, as follows : — 

 Herviera, gen. nov. 

 Testa minuta, ovata vel oblonga, obesa vel attenuate/, solidiuscula, per- 

 lazvis, nitida, violaeea, punicea, vel brunneo-tincta ; anfractus sex vel 

 septem, quorum apicales \\ vel 2, heterostrophi, vitrei, globulares, 

 color ati, nitentes ; cceteri apud suturas compressi, ventricosuli, longi- 

 tudinaliter a?rte cost all : costce simul ac interstitice perlceves; apertura 

 ovata; peristoma continuum, incrassatum ; columella fortiter uni- 

 plicaia ; plica obliqua. 



Shell, minute, ovate or oblong, stout or attenuate, somewhat solid, 

 very smooth, shining; in colour tinged with either violet, pink, or 

 brown ; six or seven whorled, the apical whorls being one-and-a-half 

 or two in number, and heterostrophic, glassy, globular, very shining, 

 and coloured as in the body of the shell ; the remainder of the whorls 

 are compressed suturally, and inclined to be tumid ; longitudinally 

 they are closely smoothly ribbed, the ribs in one of the species at 

 least having a glazed appearance as of vitreous enamel ; they are thick 

 in proportion, and their interstices are perfectly smooth likewise. 

 Aperture ovate, peristome continuous, thickened, coloured ; the 

 columella strongly once plicate, the plait being oblique. 



Type: H. gliriella. {Pyrgulina gliriella Melv. and Stand.,/", of 

 Conch., vol. 8, p. 303, pi. io, f. 57, October, 1896). 



Hab. : Lifu and Uvea (Hadfield), New Caledonia (C. Hedley). 

 In comparison with its nearest allies, this new genus in substance 

 and general form somewhat resembles a very diminutive Pyramidella 

 glans Reeve, but the small size and single columellar plait and absence 

 of interstitial pitting at once distinguish it. Syrnola Ad. possesses an 

 uniplicate columella, but the whorls are smooth and ribless, and 



