432 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



colour and details of the aperture, that Sowerby's determination 

 can only be considered as one of the blunders which so plentifully 

 occur in his works. 



CERITHIUM BREVE, var. ELLICENSIS, var. nov. 



(Fig. 20). 



Shell conical, blunt in front and tapering somewhat rapidly 

 behind. Colour cream. Apex of the only example broken, 

 remaining whorls seven, of which the upper are much eroded. 

 Sculptured by low rounded longitudinal ribs which crenulate the 

 suture and project at the periphery, on the antipenultimate there 

 are thirteen of these, on the penultimate fifteen, and on the last 

 whorl where they tend to disappear, there are counting varices, 

 eleven. The last whorl is girdled by six, the earlier by two zones 

 of raised and polished callus, which swell into greater prominence 

 on the crest of each rib. The space between these zones is scored 

 by sharp, narrow, revolving grooves, widest apart in the centre. 

 Behind the aperture is a broad outstanding varix 

 which ascends the penultimate whorl to the lower 

 callus zone. Half a whorl further back is another 

 but much weaker varix. No varices can certainly 

 be distinguished on the spire, though some slightly 

 more prominent ribs there suggest them. Aperture 

 perpendicular, oval, anterior canal short, oblique 

 and deeply cut ; inner lip with a heavy layer of 

 callus terminating above and below in a ridge 

 tubercle. Anteriorly and externally the columella 

 is reflected, not appressed to the shell. Outer lip 

 within much thickened, armed with seven enter- 

 ing ridges of callus. Length 10, breadth 5 mm. 



Fig. 20. One specimen from the lagoon beach, differs from 



type by smaller size and less prominent sculpture. 

 Of the figures accessible to me, this form most resembles those 

 of C. hanleyi, Sowerby, and C. rubrolineatum, Sowerby,* from 

 which it seems to differ by smaller size, absence of coloured bands, 

 and apparently different arrangement of the teeth of the aperture. 

 Tryon unites these two, and comments severely on this author's 

 nomenclature. Sowerby himself, by a negligence truly remarkable, 

 omits both from his later Monograph in the Conchologia Iconica. 

 The original figure of C. breve^ seems to be badly drawn. As 

 Kiener had access to the original specimens of Quoy and Gaimard, 

 I would rather base an identification on his different but well 

 drawn figure, j Smith has suggested that "C. breve may be 



* Sowerby Thesaurus Conch, ii., 1855, pi. clxxxiii., figs. 193 and 199. 



t Voy. "Astrolable," Zoo!., 1835, pi. liv , fig. 9. 



j Kiener Loc. cit., pi. xiv., fig. 2. 



Smith Mollusca, Zool. Coll. "Alert," 1884, p. 65. 



