126 FUSID^. 



the one is but the young state of the other." — Linn. Trans. ^ 

 xxiii, 69. 



Mr, Velain remarks that R. proditor (= R. argus) is very 

 plentiful at the Islands of Amsterdam and St. Paul, in the Indian 

 Ocean, where the skeletons of seals, abandoned on the rocks at 

 low-water by the fishermen, were literally covered with lobsters 

 and Ranellse at the succeeding tide. They are nocturnal in habit 

 and may be readily fished by suspending over-night, in 10 or 15 

 metres depth, the body of a bird or fish. 



LAMPAS, Schum. (Colubraria, Schum. Crossata, Tutufa and 

 Lampasopsis, Jousseaume.) Shell turreted ; whorls nodose ; 

 aperture with posterior channel ; canal very short and recurved. 

 R. bufonia, Gmel. (xlvi, 61). 



ASPA, H. and A. Adams. Shell ovate, ventricose, smooth ; 

 spire very short ; whorls nodulous at the angles ; aperture with 

 posterior channel. R. marginata, Gmel. (xlvi, 68). 



ARGOBUCCINUM, Klein. Spire elevated ; canal short ; posterior 

 channel wanting. R. pulchra^ Gray (xlvi, 69). 



Family PUSID^. 



Shell more or less spindle-shaped, without varices ; the lip of 

 the aperture not thickened. 



Operculum ovate, acute, with apical nucleus. 



The animal possesses the essential features of a Murex. 



Dentition (x, 8). That of the typical genus Pusus does not 

 differ essentially from Fasciolaria ; Stimpson states (Am. Jour. 

 Conch., i, 54) that it has the saw-like lateral teeth of Fasciolaria, 

 whilst Macdonald {Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 4th ser., ii, 243) found 

 another species to possess lateral teeth of the Muricoid type. 

 Troschel finds a Fasciolarioid dentition in Fusus Syracusanus, 

 and he has accordingly made for it a new genus, Aptyxis ; but 

 Schacko has recently found the same dentition in Fusus incon- 

 stans, Lischke, a typical Fusus. I think that Macdonald must 

 have mistaken some other genus for Fusus. The dentition of 

 Sipho, which, according to Troschel, resembles that of Fascio- 

 laria, is shown by the more recent investigations of Sars to be 

 Buccinoid. Ptychatractvis, with evident resemblance to Fascio- 

 laria, has a peculiar dentition, approaching Murex, and on this 

 character alone Stimpson, followed by Gill, assigns to it a distinct 

 family. 



Neptunea, Melongena, etc., long classed with Fusidse, are now 

 brought into more intimate relationship with Buccinum, and 

 Busycon, and Tudicla will go into the same group ; on the other 

 hand Peristernia,Latirus, etc., formerly included in Turbinellidse, 

 have a Fasciolarioid dentition, which, with added conchological 

 characters, may suffice for their removal from that to the present 



