450 PLTOCENE MOLLUSCA. 



Specific Characters. — Shell large, strong, subulate, turreted ; whorls 14 or 15, 

 convex, coarsely ornamented (in the type) by 3 or 4 prominent spiral ribs, more 

 or less equidistant, continuous to the base of the shell, with deep furrows between, 

 the intervening spaces being finely striated ; suture deep and excavated ; base 

 rounded ; spire elongate, regularly diminishing in size. 



Dimensions. — L. 70 — 90 mm. B. 18 — 20 mm. 



Distribution. — Not known living. 



Fossil : Waltonian : Walton-on-Naze, Beaumont, Little Oakley. 



Scaldisien : Antwerp. 



Miocene : Vienna basin, northern Italy, Tuscany. 



Lower Pliocene : northern Italy. 



Upper Pliocene : Ligurian coast, Bologna, Monte Mario, Asti, Livorno, Orciano, 

 Caltabiano. 



BemarJcs. — This species, which is said by Prof. Sacco to be abundant at many 

 localities in the Piacenziano of Piedmont, is especially and exceedingly so in the 

 Upper Pliocene of Asti, where I obtained a number of specimens of it, occurring 

 elsewhere not infrequently in the Pliocene and Miocene deposits of Italy. 



It is a large, strong, coarsely sculptured shell, which, although variable 

 within certain limits, has generally a distinctive character of its own. Specimens 

 from the Miocene of the Vienna basin, figured by Homes under the present name 

 have three strong, equal and equidistant ridges. In the Italian fossils the ridges 

 are usually four, but the variety lineolato-cincta, Sacco, has five or six. 



I have found several imperfect specimens at Oakley, more or less nearly corre- 

 sponding with the typical T. vermicularis of Asti, or the variety of it just named. 

 They appear to be derivative, but as this species is widely distributed in the 

 Upper Pliocene of southern Europe it may possibly have lived on in the Anglo- 

 Belgian basin until the commencement of the Red Crag period. 



MM. Bucquoy and his colleagues regard T. vermicularis as a variety of 

 T. triplicata, as do Sign. Cerulli-Irelli, and S. V. Wood, 1 while M. Oossmann seems 

 to consider them distinct. As before remarked, these two forms seem more nearly 

 related than do the typical Crag forms of T. triplicata and T. incrassata — in fact, 

 some of my Oakley specimens grouped as T. vermicularis might almost be regarded 

 as intermediate between the latter and T. triplicata ; as a rule, however, they tend 

 rather to vary in the direction of the many-ridged variety lineolato-cincta. 



Var. lineolato-cincta (Sacco). Plate XLIII, figs. 4 — 6. 



1895. Turritella (Haustator) vermicularis, var. lineolato-cinct a, Sacco, Moll. Terr. Terz. Piem., pt. xix, 



p. 23, pi. ii, fig. 17. 

 1912. Turritella (Haustator) vermicularis, var. lineato-cincta, Cerulli-Irelli, Palaeont. Ital., vol. xviii, 



p. 164, pi. xxv, fig. 5. 



1 Wood's coarsely and strongly triplicate specimen (op. cit., pi. ix, fig. 7 b) figured as T. incrassata, 

 var. j3. vermicularis, seems of the T. vermicularis type. 



