﻿238 DEVONIAN FAUNA. 



1. Philoxene philosophus, Whidbome sp. PI. XXIII, figs. 14 — 17. 



1889. Phobtjs philosophus, Whidbome. Geol. Mag., dec. 3, vol. vi, p. 30. 



Description. — Shell large, subangular, forming a low spiral of few and rapidly 

 increasing whorls. Suture angular, wide, and deep. Whorls very convex, 

 starting horizontally from the suture, then turning through a blunt elbow, and 

 running for about the same distance obliquely towards the widest part of the 

 whorl, where they turn with a circular curvature to the front of the shell, when 

 the curvature becomes less, but increases again as it traverses the inner side of 

 the whorl, which forms the umbilicus. Mouth entire, of moderate size, trans- 

 versely oval and dilate. Umbilicus extremely large and deep. Surface marked 

 with indistinct and irregular, coarse, undulating plaits or growth-lines, and 

 bearing on the lower or widest part frequent irregular hollows, which occasionally 

 preserve fragments of univalves or other shells adhering, or show their casts. 

 Shell-structure very thick. 



Size. — Height 38 mm., breadth 52 mm., width 40 mm. A second specimen 

 measures respectively 22, 38, and 34 mm. 



Localities. — Chudleigh, Lummaton, Wolborough. There are six specimens 

 of this remarkable shell in Mr. Vicary's Collection from Chudleigh, one of which 

 is very large, but none are in a very good state of preservation. In the same 

 collection are two or three indistinct specimens from Wolborough. There are 

 seven poor and small specimens in the Torquay Museum, two of which came from 

 Wolborough, and possibly the other five from Lummaton. There is one small 

 specimen from Wolborough in the Museum of Practical Geology. In my own 

 collection is another specimen from Lummaton. 



Remarks. — It is interesting to find shells with this peculiar habit in so old a 

 formation as the Devonian, but the specimens in Mr. Vicary's Collection leave no 

 doubt about the fact. Although much injured by the effects of fossilization his 

 largest specimen in particular shows several fragments of agglutinated shells, as 

 well as the impression of several whorls of a small univalve, which is almost 

 sufficiently distinct to be specifically determined. The specimen in my collection 

 was found and given to me by my friend Professor Hughes during a recent visit 

 with me to Lummaton. Being small and indistinct, we did not recognise it at the 

 time ; but, on examining it afterwards, I found that the dents, which we at first 

 supposed to be accidental, were really the remains of the agglutinations charac- 

 teristic of the genus. It is to be observed that these adherences are primarily 

 along the line of the extreme convexity of the whorls, and therefore are, in the 



