266 . N. ANNANDALE. 



distance behind the mouth, but this peculiarity is also common in living individuals 

 from the same lagoon. 



Some shells from Barkuda are bleached and worn, but others are in perfect con- 

 dition land even retain traces of the natural colours. On none of them is there any 

 trace of oyster-spat, which frequently adheres to the shells of individuals living in 

 the outer channel of the Chilka Lake. 



The species also occur in an apparently subfossil condition at the head of 

 Rambha Bay. 



Family Muricidae. 

 , Genus Cuma (Humphrey), Swainson. 



1887. Cuma Cooke, Journ. Cronch, V, pp. 162-172. 



Cuma disjuncta, sp. nov. 



1915. Thais carinifera, Annandale and Kemp {nee Purpura cariidfera Lamarck), Mem. Ind. 

 Mus., V, pp. 343, 344, fig. 2 (egg-capsules). 



In the collections of the Zoological Survey of India this species has hitherto been 

 confused with C. carinifera (Lamarck) and Purpura bitubercularis (Lamarck). It is, 

 however, distinguished by well-defined and constant characters from both, though 

 its closest ally is C. carinifera. 



The shell is thick, of rather small size, dirty white, irregularly streaked with deep 

 purple when young, fading to a uniform obscure pale greyish-clay colour when mature. 

 There are seven whorls, the first two of which, representing the protoconch, are 

 minute, smooth, convex and transverse, with the suture impressed and linear. The 

 sculpture of the adult shell makes its appearance on the third whorl, which is orna- 

 mented with a stout, somewhat nodular median spiral ridge with several more delicate 

 and smoother ridges traversed by strong longitudinal striae, above and below. This 

 whorl is also transverse but less convex than those of the protoconch. The suture 

 below it and the other whorls of the spire is not impressed, but, indeed, almost obsolete. 

 The fourth whorl is divided horizontally into two regions by the median ridge, which is 

 considerably stronger than that on the third whorl. The region above this ridge 

 slopes outwards and downwards, while the lower region is almost vertical but becomes 

 gradually constricted below. All these features are more'^^rominent on the remain- 

 ing whorls of the spire, which increase rapidly in size. The sculpture also becomes 

 stronger and on the sixth whorl the median ridge is broken up into a series of 

 blunt triangular projections. The spire as a whole is broadly pyramidical, with 

 broken outlines and a sharp apex. The body- whorl is very irregular in shape. Above 

 its older half the suture remains normal and the spiral of the upper whorls is con- 

 tinued, but at about one-thirds the width of the completed whorl an abrupt change 

 takes place, the suture becomes deeply canalized and the body-whorl reaches out- 

 wards in such a manner that a deep notch is left above it in the dorsal outline of the 

 shell. Viewed by itself this whorl forms almost an equilateral triangle in this aspect. 

 Immediately outside the suture there is a narrow almost transverse, slightly concave 

 area. This is followed on the upper half of the whorl by two spiral series of blun- 



