WOODWARD : ON DONOVANIA MINIMA. 237 



The earliest record which I can find of the application of Eisso's 

 generic term Lacliesis to Montagu's Buccinum minimum is in S. P. 

 "Woodward's Manual in 1851, and from that date Montagu's shell 

 appears to have been known under this name to most conchologists 

 (e.g., Forbes & Hanley, Adams, Gwyn Jeffreys, Monterosato, and 

 Pischer). In 1882 Bucquoy, Dautzenberg, and Dollfus proposed 

 the name Donovania for this shell on the grounds that Lacliesis and 

 Nesaa were both preoccupied; these authors give a very excellent 

 account of this shell, and a full synonymy, but are, I think, wrong 

 in their conclusion that the genera Lacliesis and Nesma of Eisso were 

 founded upon specimens of Buccinum minimum, Mont. I do not 

 know whether S. P. Woodward was the first to perpetrate this error, 

 but am sure that a careful comparison of Kisso's figures and 

 description of Lacliesis and Nescea with a good example of Montagu's 

 shell will show that they are quite distinct. We are indebted, 

 therefore, to MM. Bucquoy, Dautzenberg, and Dollfus for a very 

 appropriate name for Buccinum minimum, Mont., and may in future 

 safely speak of the shell as Donovania minima (Mont.). 



With respect to its systematic position, Donovania minima was of 

 course originally placed in the Buccinidse, and with slight wanderings 

 held this position until 1847, when Grey placed it, under the 

 generic name Anna, in his section Conina of the family Muricidse. 

 S. P. Woodward in 1851 placed it doubtfully as a section of Pleuro- 

 toma. Porbes & Hanley referred it in 1855 to the Muricidae, but 

 Adams in 1858 restored it to the Pleurotomidse ; in 1867 Jeffreys, 

 who first describes the animal, placed it in the Muricidae ; Bucquoy, 

 Dautzenberg, and Dollfus, and, following these authors, Tryon, placed 

 it with the Pleurotomidse, whilst, lastly, Fischer returned it once 

 more to the Muricidae. 



Some differences exist between the various published descriptions 

 of the shell of Donovania, owing to the fact that many of these were 

 based upon immature specimens. It is apparently only late in life, 

 though not necessarily only in the largest specimens, that the outer 

 lip becomes thickened, and 5-6 inconspicuous ridges or denticulations, 

 appear on its inner side. There are six rounded whorls, the apical 

 one (the protoconch) alone differing in sculpture ; this last is 

 generally slightly inclined to the major axis of the shell, globose, 

 and at first finely granular, but gradually develops fine longitudinal 

 ribs, which lower down become obscured by the conspicuous transverse 

 spiral striae. 



The operculum (Fig. I) is flattened and broad, the nucleus being 

 apical. Fischer compares it with that of Ocinebra, but it appears to 

 me, from the position of the nucleus, to approximate more to that of 

 Pisania. 



The animal (Fig. II) is of a pale yellowish, translucent, white, 

 with opaque white dots scattered over the surface of the foot, body, 

 and siphon. The siphon is large ; the tentacles moderately developed, 

 thickened proximally for rather more than one-third of their total 

 length, the eyes being situated at the posterior side at the distal end 

 of this thickened portion, the extremities of the tentacles taper 



