382 MARINE INVERTEBRATES 
wildering number of well-characterized genera. It has many 
representatives in every sea, but, as is apt to be the case, the 
finest and most striking species are tropical. The animal is not 
peculiar in any way, being altogether a conventional prosobranch 
gasteropod, with moderately long foot, and the usual tentacles 
placed upon a small head. There is a retractile proboscis, which 
suggests carnivorous habits. In reality the Muricide are per- 
fect pirates among the Mollusca, attacking nearly every species 
they encounter, piercing its shell and devouring the unfortunate 
inhabitant. They live in rocky and gravelly places or about 
coral reefs. Their shells are seldom colored,except about the aper- 
ture. What the shells lack in color, however, they fully gain in 
oddness of form and in sculpturing. The anterior canal varies 
from a mere notch to an astonishingly long channel. The ten- 
dency to nodes, varices, spires, and varicose processes in general 
is a prominent feature of the family. 
There are several genera, with numerous species, upon the east, 
and west coasts of the United States, but we can do no more here 
than mention those which are very common. 
Genus Murex 
Of this tropical genus there are two Floridian species—M. 
rufus and M. pomuwm. The genus has been very extensively- 
divided into subgenera, based upon shell-characters alone. Some 
of these subgenera are usually accepted at full generic value, and 
their substitution for the old, well-established name Murex is to 
be expected. These two Floridian species fall within different 
subgeneric lines, and the student who goes to a museum to ecom- 
pare his catch with the labeled specimens on exhibition will 
probably be puzzled to find his two murices named Chicoreus 
rufus and Phyllonotus pomum respectively. But for our purposes 
the name Murex will do well enough. 
M. rufus. This species scarcely ever exceeds three inches in length. 
Its spire is moderately high, and the aperture is oblong-ovate, with a 
long, slightly curved, and almost completely inclosed anterior canal. 
Through the end of this the fleshy siphon projects in life. The shell is 
most extravagantly sculptured — so intricately that it is difficult to 
describe it. Its most conspicuous feature is the large foliaceous varices 
