PLATE XVI. 



MuREX Scorpio: testa quadrifariam frondosa : spira capltata, 



Cauda truncata. Mus. Lud. Ulr. 628. n. 296. — 

 Gmd, Umi, Syst. T. 1. p. 6. 3529. 14.— 

 Rumpf. Mus. t. 26.y: D.—Seha, Mus, 3. tab, 77. 

 >g. 13. 16. 



Cochlis volutata muricata parva sex duplici laciniarum serie 

 liorrida, spiris quatuor capitatis faucibus, quasi Scorpionum forficulis 

 armatis. Purpura quae Scorpio Auctorum. Chemn. 



The extraordinary form of this very rare and singular kind 

 of Murex cannot fail to interest the curious observer. The shell is of 

 the spiral kind, with an oval aperture ; the head of the spire large 

 or tumid, and the first or body whorl beset with four distinct longi- 

 tudinal rows or series of elongated foliations or processes. These 

 last mentioned appendages are flat and somewhat cylindrical from 

 the base nearly to their summits, where they become cleft or furcate, 

 expanding most commonly into two, sometimes three, or rarely four 

 distinct little lobes, and the radiation of these process by which the 

 exterior margin of the aperture is encircled, have a groove or canal 

 extending from the margin of the lip to the cleft or lobate summits. 



The learned Seba, to whom this very remarkable shell, it 

 appears, was known, has well observed in speaking of the Murices, 

 which he describes, that this kind is more particularly distinguished 

 by the greater disproportion of those advanced processes in com- 

 parison with the size of the body of the shell than any other of his 

 species; so that their superior length in this respect was, in his 



