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DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF TEREBRA 

 FROM THE MEKRAN COAST, ARABIAN SEA. 



By JAMES COSMO MELVILL, M.A., D.Sc. 



(Read before the Society, Jan. loth, 1917). 



Terebra ^trismacaria sp. nov. 



T. testa parva, gracilenta, angnsta, anfractibus ad z/, quorum apicaJes 

 quatuor pervifrei, peilucentes, Iceinssimi, ccsteris gradatulis , costidis 

 aciitis regularibus fere ?'ectis vet interdzim flexuosis iongitiidinaliter' 

 decoratis, spiraliter undique acute liratis, liris anfraduiim iriuin 

 ultimorum ad 8, tcenia suturali incrassata nitide alba, tiodulosa, 

 sulco inter costas piinctigero, apertura parva, margine columellari 

 nitido, albo, calloso. 

 Long., 1 8 ; lat., 4 mm. 



Hab., Mekran coast, probably off Charbar, but neither locality nor 

 depth in fathoms precisely specified. 



An attractive and delicately beautiful little 

 shell, its whorls of the palest straw colour, 

 excepting for the shining white nodulous 

 sutural band, beneath which runs a spiral sul- 

 cus, punctate interstitially, between the ribs ; 

 these are mostly straight, occasionally sHghtly 

 fiexuose, acute and close-ranged, and are 

 crossed by sharply defined regular spiral lira- 

 tions. The aperture is very small, columellar 

 margin thickened, shining white. 



This Terebra will always have for me a 

 particular interest, albeit tinged with sad- 

 dened recollections, for it was, I think, the last 

 species I was ever privileged to compare and 

 discuss in company with one who had specially 

 studied the genus — the late Mr. Edgar Smith. 

 He could find nothing in the Museum Col- 

 lection to exactly match it, and I agreed with him it was probably 

 undescribed. 



It is of the alliance of T. alveolata Hinds, marmorata Reeve, heti- 

 chrysum Melv. and Stand., and others with well developed sutural 

 band and puncticulate spiral sulcus. It differs from its congeners in 

 its attenuate contour, very small aperture, subgradate whorls, the 

 pale stramineous line centrally contrasting with the pure white shin- 



I TpLCrfXaKap, thnce happy. 



i 



Terebra trismacaria 

 sp. nov. 



