﻿CAPULUS. 209 



I860. Capultts pro^ivus, Eichwald. Lethaea Eossica, p. 1102, pi. xli, figs. 14 a, 6. 

 1885. — compeessus, Clarke. Neues Jahrb. fiirMin., Beil.-Bandiii, p. 361. 



1889. Aceoculia PKOiEVA, Whidborne. G-eol. Mag., dec. 3, vol. vi, p. 30. 



Description. — Shell rather small, very much depressed, lenticular, short, 

 trigonal. Spire little developed, recurved, much less than a volution, much 

 depressed below the highest plane of the shell, but tending slightly upwards, 

 involute. Apex very minute, indistinct, rounded, considerably distant from the 

 plane of the mouth. Body- whorl rather short, rapidly and regularly increasing, 

 very much flattened, showing a very long oval in section ; gently convex above and 

 below, slightly flattened on the narrow back ; horizontally having a nearly circular 

 curvature on the back, deeply concave on the inner side and slightly concave 

 below. Mouth not expanded, hardly if at all sinuous. Surface marked with 

 irregular growth-lines or fine strige, which occasionally undulate, and which turn 

 rearwards as they cross the back. Colour pale, marked with a few narrow spiral 

 black streaks. 



Size. — A specimen measures 16 mm. in width, 16 mm. in depth, and 13 mm. 

 in height. 



Locality. — Lummaton. There are five specimens in my Collection, two in 

 the Woodwardian Museum, and one in the Battersby Collection of the Torquay 

 Museum. 



Remarks. — This species is characterised by its great flatness perpendicularly, 

 by its short, subtriangular, and rapidly increasing whorl ; by the total absence of 

 longitudinal furrows, and, where seen, by the remarkable spiral colour-bands. 

 This is, in fact, almost the only Devonshire species in which I have observed the 

 remains of colour pattern, and even in this it is only observable in two specimens, 

 the others being either a blackish or pale grey monochrome. It is to be observed 

 that one of the figures (fig. 169c) given by Phillips in his ' Paleeozoic Fossils' 

 evidently shows traces of a similar colouring. It represents a considerably 

 larger and higher shell than any of our specimens, but in other respects it 

 corresponds with them, except that its back is more evenly rounded and broader, 

 and possibly it may simply be an old and lofty example of the present species. 

 I am, however, more inclined to regard it as a variety of Oapulus tylotus, and to 

 think that it represents the same species, and perhaps even the same shell, as that 

 given by Phillips in bis fig. 169 a. I have been unable to find the originals of 

 these two figures. 



This species differs from 0. pericompsus by its shorter and less tubular form, 

 and the absence of spiral furrows ; and from 0. rostratus, Trenkner, by the much 

 smaller concavity in the lower contour of the shell. 



It should be observed that the small specimen given as PI. XX, fig. 9, is a 

 fragment of the apex, and not a perfect infant shell. 



