34 PALEONTOLOGY OF NEW JERSEY. 



There is no Tudicla in the Cretaceous to which it bears any great resem- 

 blance. 



Formation and locality: Lower Green Marls, at Crosswicks Creek, 

 New Jersey. In the collection at Rutgers College. 



Genus PYROPSIS Conrad. 

 Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci, Phila., 2d ser., vol. 4, p. 288. 



Mr. Conrad describes this genus as follows : " Spu-e very short, apex not 

 papillated; labrum without strise within, thick; columella without a fold;" 

 and places it as a subgenus under Tudicla Bolton. Immediately following 

 the generic description he describes T. (Pyropsis) perlata, PI. xlvi. Fig. 39, 

 which, although not cited as the type, ought naturally, from its position in 

 connection with the generic description, to be considered such. This shell 

 possesses close affinities with the Miiricidre, and with the Hamtellum group, 

 having a long, slender canal and beak, with the inner lip of the aperture 

 strongly reflected over the body whorl anel columella, leaving an open 

 space between itself and the columellar p^ortion of the beak, but not a true 

 umbilical cavity. The canal is entirely open, however, and the whorls are 

 without varices, although there appears to be a tendency to form spines on 

 the periphery. The absence of striae within the aperture and want of ridge 

 or tubercle at the base of the posterior angle of the aperture on the inner 

 lip separate it from the genus Tudicla, with which in nearly all other char- 

 acters it agrees. It is somewhat difficult to determine satisfactorily, among 

 the casts with which I have to deal, which should be placed under this 

 genus and which may belong to Mr. Grabb's genus Perissolax, as Mr. 

 Gabb's type of this genus, P trivolva, is so very closely related to this one. 



There appears to be little difference between' the two genera if the 

 types alone are considered, but a part of .those herein referred to Pyropis, 

 which would seem to be properly referable to it, depart considerably from 

 the type in the greater height of the spire, the rounding of -the volutions, 

 and probably in the shorter canal, and appear to form a connection between 

 this genus and Pyrifusus Conrad. But this latter genus has never been 

 properly understood, owing to the improper figuring of the type species, the 

 original of which I have examined. (See description of that genus else- 

 where in this volume, p. 48.) 



