MOILTTSCA. 37 



In form the specimen obtained by Dr. Coppinger agrees to a great 

 extent witt O. aculeiformis, Eeeve, but almost entirely lacks the 

 lateral inclination of the anterior narrowed extremity. The spiral 

 sulci on the body-whorl are narrower, and exhibit a decidedly less 

 amount of subpunctate sculpture caused by the impressed lines of 

 growth. The raised interstices are markedly flatter and broader, 

 and do not exhibit the brown dotting so characteristic of Reeve's 

 species. These differences may probably be accounted for by the 

 younger state of the single specimen from the Arafura Sea, which, 

 being dredged in a dead condition, has in a great degree lost its 

 coloration. The spire offers scarcely any differences, the propor- 

 tionate height, the coronation of three or four whorls succeeding the 

 smooth glossy nucleus, the smooth ridge immediately below the 

 suture, the finer lira beneath it in the concavity of the whorls, and 

 the elevated margin beneath this being precisely as in the larger 

 shell described by Eeeve, with the exception of the ridge beneath 

 the suture, which is rather broader and rhore flattened. 



3. Terebra exigua. 



Beshayes, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 301 ; Beeve, Conch. Icon. pi. 26. 

 fig. 84 



Hah. Thursday Island, Torres Straits (Ooppinger) ; East Austra- 

 lia (Beshayes) ; Andaman Islands (Colonel Wilnier in Brit. Mus.). 



The type of this species is described as having a length of 19 

 millimetres, but the single shell in the Cnmingian collection is scarcely 

 15 long. One from the Andaman Islands measures 21 millimetres, 

 and the one now recorded from Torres Straits exceeds that in length 

 by four. 



4. Pleurotoma (Drillia) torresiana. (Piatb IV. figs. D-D 1.) 



Shell fusiform, strong, robust, longitudinally costate and spirally 

 Urate, having the ribs white or yellow, stained either with bright 

 red or brownish black in the interstices, and ornamented with two 

 bands of the same colour upon the last whorl. Volutions 12, having 

 a duplex wavy ridge above, beneath which they are excavated and 

 then convex at the sides ; the concavity is rather deep and traversed 

 by three or four spiral strise. The costse are obsolete in the con- 

 cavity, a trifle oblique, thickest above, attenuating inferiorly, 

 thirteen in number on the last two whorls, two of them on each 

 being large swollen white varices. The ribs are crossed by spiral 

 lira3, there being seven or eight on the penultimate, and about 

 twenty-four on the last whorl, besides one or more finer ones in the 

 interstices between them. The columella is smooth, covered with a 

 thin , callus, developed into a tubercle at the upper part. Labral 

 sinus deepish in the concavity above. Length 34 millim., width 10 ; 

 aperture 13 long. 



Bab. Friday Island, Torres Straits, and Prince of Wales Channel, 

 7-9 fathoms. 



