156 PLIOCENE MOLLUSCA. 



miniature shells which could never have grown to the proportions of the tjqDical 

 form. 



Genus NEPTUNEA, Bolten, 1798. 

 Neptunea contraria (Linne). 



Var. typica. Plate XVI, figs. 1, 2. 



1771. Miirex contrarius, Liunt', Mantissa plantarum, vol. ii, p. 551. 



1812. Murex contrarius, J. Sowerby, Miu. Conch., vol. i, p. 63, tab. xxiii. 



1843. Fusus contrarius, Nyst, Coq. foss. Terr. Tert. Belg., p. 499, pi. xli, fig-. 1. 



1848. Troplion antiquum, var. contrarium, S. V. Wood, Mon. Crag Moll., pt. i, p. 44, tab. v, fig. 1. 



1881. Fusus contrarius, Nyst, Conch. Terr. Tert. Belg., p. 14, pi. i, figs. 9 a, 9/. 



1885. Fustis contrarius, Loric, Arch. Mus. Teyler [2], vol. ii, p. 203, pi. v, fig. 29. 



1889. Chrysodomus contraria. Van den Broeck, Bull. Soc. Beige Gc'oL, vol. vi (Memoires), pp. 121, 131. 



1898. Fusus {Neptunea) contrarius, F. W. Harmer, Proc. Intern. Congr. Zool. (Cambridge), p. 222, 

 pi. iii, figs. 2, 3, 5. 



Specific Characters. — See auctt. 

 Dimensions. — L. 75 — 125 mm. B. 35 — 75 mm. 



Distribution. — Fossil : English Crag : Waltonian, Newbournian, Butleyan. 

 Icenian : Norwich and Weybourne horizons. 



Scaldisien, Poederlien : Belgium. Scaldisien : Holland. Isle of Man, Slains, 

 Wexford. 



Pleistocene : Middle Glacial sands of Billockby ; Bridlington, Kelsey Hill, 

 Worden, Gloppa, Cleongart (Arran), Dublin, Estuarine Clay of Belfast. 



Remarks. — The question of the specific identity or otherwise of the various 

 dextral and sinistral mollusca of which Neptunea antiqua has been taken as the 

 type, is one upon which some difference of opinion has existed. The study of their 

 distribution in space and time may possibly throw light on the subject. 



In Lamarck's ' Histoire Naturelle des Animaux sans vertebres,' ed. 2, Deshayes, 

 1843, the names of five allied forms are given and regarded as specifically distinct. 

 Of these, three are dextral, viz. : 



Fnsus antiquus, Linne. 

 ,, carinatus, Pennant. 

 „ despectus, Linne. 

 and two sinistral, viz. : 



Fiisvs contrarius, Linne. 

 ,, sinistrorsus, Deshayes. 



