CONCHOLOGY. 



Gcnus-ARA'SEA. Species-ARASEA GRACILIS. 



Character. — Shell univalve, spiral, the spire and body short 

 and rounded, the beak long and armed with a 

 triple row of spines, the mouth undulated and 

 1 ablated. The body, spire, and beak invested 

 with a triple accumulation of curved and pointed 

 integuments, open at the base. 



THE curious and graceful shell of which we are now 

 about to present the resemblance to our readers, was classed 

 by that great naturalist Linnaeus, along with the Murices, 

 by the name of Murex Tribulus Minor; upon a further 

 investigation, however, of its form, it seems more properly 

 to form a genus of itself, of which, about twenty different 

 species are at present known, some of which are three times 

 as large as the present. By some of our later writers upon 

 Conchology, it has been called by the name of Venus's 

 Comb, or the small Thorney Woodcock, from its supposed 

 resemblance to a Woodcock's head and bill. 



Of those shells which are denominated the branched 

 species, the Triplex and the Aranea are the most remark- 

 able, the distinction which exists between them, has been 

 remarked in a former number, where several of the Tri- 

 plices have been already described. The length of the 

 shell of the Aranea Gracilis is generally from five to six 

 inches, and exhibits a striking and pleasing object, as to 

 the elegance, lightness, and intricacy of its parts. The 

 number of its curved spines or thorns, amounts in the whole 

 to ninety-five, all of different lengths, and placed each of 

 them at various distances, in the most curious and agreeable 



