94 



POPULAR CONCHOLOGY. 



Gray.) — Shell very long, needle-shaped, with numerous 

 whorls, usually spirally grooved ; aperture 

 rounded, entire, margin thin ; no umbilicus ; 

 operculum horny, formed of many whorls. 

 Animal with a muzzle-shaped head, bearing two 

 long subulate tentacles, having eyes on their 

 external bases, slightly prominent ; foot very 

 short in proportion to the shell, truncate in 

 front, rounded behind, grooved beneath ; oper- 

 cula lobe occupying the caudal disk, not cir- 

 rhated nor winged ; mantle with a fringed 

 margin, obscurely siphonated at the right side ; 

 branchial plume single, very long ; tongue 

 very short, each series of denticles consisting 

 of a subquadrate medium, with an incurved 

 denticulated apex, and of three similar ligulate uncini on 

 each side, all with hamate serrulated smmnits.* — 65 

 species f ; also fossil. 



These shells are found in India, Africa, and Europe ; 

 many of the foreign species attain a large size, some 

 having been found four inches and a half long, the whorls 

 varying from fifteen to thirty in number. :f They are more 

 or less striated, but none are known to possess vertical 

 ribs, thickened bands, or tubercles. Forbes says that the 

 animal, when full grown, does not fill up the entire length 

 of the shell, but partitions off part of the spire. T. com- 

 munis is the British species. 



Photo. Defrance. — Shell turret-shaped, with nu- 

 merous flat whorls, having a line extending parallel to 

 the suture, as in some Terebra ; the aperture is oblique, 

 rounded, enlarged, the edges not connected ; the outer lip 



* Forbes's British Moll. 

 J Reeve. 



t Reeve's Ieonicn. 



