NASSA (HINT A) RETICULATA. 319 



1911. Nassa reticulata, Cerulli-Irelli, Palaeont. Ital, vol. xvii, p. 247, pi. xxii, figs. 29, 30. 

 1913. Nassa (Hinia) reticulata, G-ignoux, Ann. Univ. Lyon, N.s. [1], vol. xxxvi, p. 507. 



Specific Characters. — Shell thick and strong with a wide base; whorls but little 

 convex, the last excavated and pinched np at the back of the canal ; ornamented 

 by strong longitudinal ribs, about 15 on the body-whorl, equal to the intervening 

 spaces, finer, more numerous and closer together on the upper ones, also by rather 

 deep spiral striae which cause slight tuberculation on the ribs ; spire elongato- 

 conical, ending in a blunt point ; suture slight ; mouth, oval, angulate above ; outer 

 lip nearly straight above, rounded below, thickened and toothed internally ; inner 

 lip fluted below, forming a thick and wide glaze on the pillar ; canal very short, 

 open, turning to the left. 



Dimensions. — L. 18 — 28 mm. B. 12 — 15 mm. 



Distribution. — Recent : common throughout British Seas, and abroad from 

 Norway to the Mediterranean and the Azores. 



Fossil : Wexford, Isle of Man. Generally distributed in the 

 Pleistocene deposits of Great Britain. 

 Miocene : Touraine, Vienna basin. 

 Lower Pliocene : Albenga, Vezza, Bordighera, Biot. 

 Upper Pliocene : Monte Mario, Altavilla, Val d'Era, Bologna, Livorno. 

 Pleistocene : Ficarazzi, Monte Pellegrino, Messina, Catania, Reggio, Monteleone, 

 Taranto, Gravina, Livorno, Valle Biaia. 



Tapes-banks in Christiania fiord (Bro'gger). Trondhjem (0yen). Uddevalla. 

 Remarks. — This common and wide-spread British and continental species has 

 not been recorded from the Pliocene deposits of the Anglo-Belgian basin, although 

 it is said by continental authorities to go back to Miocene times and has been 

 found at many localities in the Pliocene and Pleistocene of the south of Europe. 

 It is a characteristic and rather abundant form of the British Pleistocene, occurring 

 also in the western area in Manxland and the Wexford gravels, at March and 

 Kelsea Hill in the east, and at Selsey with its comparatively southern fauna in the 

 south. It is said to be rather rare in the Scottish Pleistocene but abundant in the 

 high-level drifts of Lancashire and especially in those of Ireland. Prof. Brjsrgger 

 includes it among his list of Lusitanian fossils from the ^apes-banks of the Christiania 

 fiord and Dr. 0yen reports it from the Pleistocene of Trondhjem. 



The present species, taken as typical of the Hinia group of the Nassidae, is 

 allied to Niotha but is not ventricose, the parietal folding is absent, the outer lip 

 being denticulated within and not grooved as in that sub-genus. 



Var. nitida (Jeffreys). Plate XXXIV, figs. 3—5. 



1826. Buccinum reticulatum, Blainville, Faun, franc, p. 172, pi. vii, fig. 1. 



1820. Planaxis mammilata, Eisso, Hist. Nat. Europ. merit!., vol. iv, p. 178, no. 459, pi. ix, fig. 122. 



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