48 LEPAS. 



HELMET ACORN. 



16. Lepas galeata. L. testa galeata apertura laterali. Linn. Gmel. 



p. 3209. 

 Shell helmet-shaped, with a lateral aperture. 

 Balanus, testa obliquata conica, basi subinfundibuliformi superne mar- 



ginata, apertura laterali. Brug. Encyl. Meth. Hist. Nat. torn. 6 



p. 170. 

 Lepas calceolus. Pal. Zooph. p. 198. Schroter Einl. in die Conch. 3. 



p. 318. N. 7. t. 9. f. 20. a. b. Encyclop. Method, pi. 165. f. 7, 8. 



This shell is of a very singular shape. It appears to 

 be composed of two oblique cones with their bases 

 resting upon each other, but does not bear much resem- 

 blance either to a helmet or a slipper. The base by 

 which it fixes itself is hollow, and the edges are sharply 

 carinated. It has six unequal valves ; the three anterior 

 are the largest and situated obliquely, the others are 

 perpendicular, and much shorter : the aperture is placed 

 behind, and has a striated operculum of four valves. 

 The upper part of the shell has a tendency to violet 

 colour, the base is cinereous. 



This species seems to attach itself particularly to 

 corallines. Pallas found it on the stems of the Gorgo- 

 nia verrucosa in the Mediterranean ; Schroter on the 

 G. FlabeMum, which grows in the Indian seas, and Bru- 

 guiere, enveloped in the horny substance of different 

 corallines of the same genus, from the Asiatic ocean. 



