UNIVALVES 



PLATE XLVI. 



Genus. ARANEA. 



Character. Shell spiral ; the mouth rounded ; the spire short ; the beak very 

 long ; the whole shell covered with irregular pointed spines ; no calcar or spur upon 

 the rostrum ; number of the membranaceous divisions uncertain and irregular. 



Species. 



No. 1. Aranea fasciata. Shell of a lively brown colour, striped crosswise with 

 bands of rich brown ; the mouth of a bright red colour ; the spines varie- 

 gated with brown. From a shell in the British Museum. 



No. 2. Aranea aculeata. Shell pale brown, striped with bands of an ochreous 

 brown ; spines very sharp, and acutely prominent ; the mouth striped on the 

 inside. A native of the African Seas. 



No. 3. Aranea conspicua. Shell of a pale red ; the mouth yellow, and richly 

 foliated by a broad spreading margin ; the spines few, and strongly marked ; 

 mouth of a pale red colour. This striking shell was delineated from a spe- 

 cimen in the Museum of Mr. Bullock, and is supposed to be very rare ; it 

 is probably a native of the Eastern Ocean, and is altogether of a very re- 

 markable form and character. 



No. 4. Aranea cinerea. Shell gray; the beak invested with three spines; the 

 mouth of a dark red, inclining to brown. Native place unknown. 



No. 5. Aranea pallida. Shell of a pale blue ; the mouth very much narrowed 

 and contorted, and differing materially from most of its congeners in its 

 general shape and contour. This shell is said to be found upon the African 

 Coast 



REMARKS. 



No genus of shells has been more confused in the arrangement of the early Writers upon 

 Conchology than the genus Aranea, and yet none can have a character more distinctly marked. 

 It has been erroneously placed by Lister, Dargenville, and even Linnaeus, with the genus 

 Murex, to which it has not the smallest analogy, its spinous or thorny character being quite 

 sufficient to distinguish it from that and all others. In the preceding plate we endeavoured 

 to demonstrate the necessity of placing the two shells called the Tribulus major and the 

 Tribulus minor, in the genus Aranea, by which means, and by the present Plate, we trust, 

 all the difficulties of arrangement will be avoided, and the whole class brought to a de- 

 terminate character. The Aranea has a distant resemblance to the Triplex, from which, how- 

 ever, it differs in the form of the beak, and in the height of its spire, as will be seen by a 

 reference to each description. 



