368 PLIOCENE MOLLUSC A. 



this monstrous over the normal form in two geological epochs." When the 

 sinistral shells made their first recorded appearance in British seas, however — that 

 is, in Waltonian times — they were normal, and not " monstrous." 



The Wexford shells seem to be more nearly related to the arctic N. deformis 

 than to the Crag N. contraria. The latter is comparatively a southern form, 

 unknown from the north, while the former is an arctic species, now living in the 

 seas of Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, and the Behring Strait, but unrecorded from 

 any more southern locality. 1 The question suggests itself, therefore, whether this 

 abundant Wexford shell may not have been of northern origin, and be specifically 

 distinct from the Crag N. contraria. 



Neptunea antiqua (Linne). Plate XIX, fig. 1 ; Plate XXXVI, fig. 26. 



1868. Fusus antiquus, Fischer, Journ. de Conch., vol. xvi, p. 35. 



1888-90. Fusus antiquus, A. Bell, Kep. Brit. Assoc. (Bath), pp. 135, 139, 1888 ; (Leeds), pp. 411, 419, 



1890. 

 1892. Neptunia antiqua, Locard, Coq. mar. Cotes de France, p. 110, fig. 98. 

 1894. Fusus antiquus, Kendall, Journ. Isle of Man Nat. Hist. Soc, vol. i, p. 419. 

 1901. Chrysodomus antiquus, Cossmann, Ess. Paleoconch. compar., vol. iv, p. 99, fig. 28. 

 1903. Trophon antiquus, Lamplugh, Mem. Geol. Surv. (Isle of Man), p. 475. 



1913. Chrysodomus antiquus, Gignoux, Ann. Univ. Lyon, (n. s.) [1], vol. xxxvi, p. 494. 



1914. Neptunea antiqua, F. W. Hariner, Plioc. Moll. Gt. Brit., pt. i, p. 168, pi. xix, fig. 1. 



Remarks. — Among the Wexford fossils there are one or two dextral Neptuneas 

 which, although smaller than the normal N. antiqua of our British seas, may be 

 referred to that species, resembling it in form and as far as their worn condition 

 alloAvs in the fine spiral sculpture of the recent shell. With them there are a few 

 left-handed shells of a similar type, differing from the variety inform is in sculpture, 

 in their more slender character, their non-ventricose body-whorl, their narrower 

 and non-expanded mouth and their longer canal. The surface of this shell, more- 

 over, is generally polished and of a darker colour. 



With one of these I figure also a recent specimen of what is supposed to be the 

 reversed form of the recent N. antiqua from the Moray Firth (fig. 28). It is a 

 rare and local shell, and was called by Jeffreys Fusus antiquus, var. contrarius. 

 If, however, the sinistral Crag N. contraria is a distinct species, and it has been 

 so considered by most authorities from the time of Linne onwards, that varietal 

 term is inapplicable. I suggest that inversa might be used instead. 



As to whether the Wexford shell (fig. 27) should be regarded as a reversed 



1 N. deformis is now generally known under the generic term Pyrolofusus, proposed by Morch 

 for sinistral forms of Neptunea. To apply that name to the present shell, however, might involve the 

 adoption of it for the Crag iV~. contraria, causing, I think, much and unnecessary confusion. M. Coss- 

 mann, moreover, objects to the use of Pyrolofusus (op. cit., vol. iv, p. 99). 



