CLATHURELLA PURPUREA. 231 



Pliocene (Casterlien, Scaldisien) : Antwerp. Scaldisien : Holland ; Sicily — Alta- 

 villa, Messina ; Italy — Calabria, Reggio, Santa Cristina, Monastirace, Gerace. 

 Pleistocene : Ficarazzi, Barcelona-Castroreale. 



Remarks. — Originally grouped with Pleurotoma and afterwards with DrilUa, 

 the present shell is now usually identified with the Recent Norwegian Spirotropis 

 carinata of Prof. Gr. 0. Sars, the characteristic features of Spirotropis being a wide 

 labial sinus close to the suture, a globular embryo, and the absence of sculptures on 

 the spine. 



S. modiola is recorded from the Miocene of North Grermany, the Vienna basin, 

 Denmark (Upper), North Italy (Middle and Upper), but not from the Pliocene of 

 the latter region. It occurs, however, according to Seguenza, at many places in 

 the Upper Pliocene and Pleistocene of Calabria and Sicily. It has been found in 

 the Coralline, Waltonian and Newbournian Crags, and at several Pliocene horizons 

 in Belgium and Holland. 



Unfortunately all the Crag specimens known to me but one have the outer lip 

 too imperfect to show the characteristic labial notch; but in one from the Sedgwick 

 Museum at Cambridge, now figured, it may be clearly traced. This feature is 

 represented in Homes' figure of P. modiola (op. cit.), but not by any other of the 

 authors quoted above. 



M. Cossmann doubts whether the fossil species here described is truly 

 equivalent to the Recent form, for which he adopts Bivona's specific name of 

 carinata. He considers, however, that the Crag fossils with those from the 

 Pliocene and Pleistocene of Sicily, are of an intermediate character. It seems 

 desirable, therefore, to figure with our Crag shells a Recent example of the 

 Norwegian 8. carinata for comparison. I do not think the former can be separated 

 from those of the Miocene beds. In any case we cannot be wrong to retain the 

 older name, 8. modiola, in our Crag lists. 



In the fifth volume of the British Mollusca (pi. cii, fig. 7) Jeffreys figures a 

 small specimen under the present name ; if it is correctly drawn I cannot but 

 think his identification is open to doubt. 



According to Seguenza and others 8. modiola still lingers on in the 

 Mediterranean. 



Genus CLATHURELLA, Carpenter, 1857. 

 Clathurella purpurea (Montagu). Plate XXVIII, figs. 16, 17. 



1803. Murex purpureus, Montagu, Test. Brit., pt. i, p. 260, pi. ix, fig. 3. 



1842. Pleurotoma purpureum, Pliilippi, Enum. Moll. Siciliae, vol. ii, p. 165. 



1848. Glavatula Philherti, S. V. Wood, Mon. Crag Moll., pt. i, p. 57, tab. vii, fig. 5. 



1853. Mayigelia purpurea, Forbes and Hanley, Brit. Moll., vol. iii, p. 465, pi. cxiii, figs. 3, 4. 



