38 
MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS STROPHIA. 
guished by the largest size ( the largest Strophia known ) smooth sur- 
face and widely open umbilicus, the column being about the same di- 
ameter for nearly its entire length. 
This is not the Conchlodonta decumana of Ferussac (Prodromus 
page 462 ) nor is it the Pupa decumana of Pfeiffer ( Mon. Helic. Vol. 
II, page 320) for his description is based upon Ferussac’s, and both 
describe a species which differs from the true S. regia in at least two 
important characters, namely, in being irregularly and strongly ribbed? 
and in having the umbilicus imperforate. Pfeiffer, who says he had 
a specimen from the collection of Metcalf, gives St. Thomas as the 
habitat. 
Although the present species should undoubtedly bear the name 
of S. regia, it is with some hesitation that I give Benson as the author- 
ity. In the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 2d series, Yol. 
IY, August, 1849, page 123, Benson describes a shell which he calls 
Pupa regia, and which he says positively came from Nankin, China. 
Now although his description in general fits the species which I have 
given as Strophia regia very well, his dimensions are of a shell having 
widely different proportions, for example, his shell was 44 millimeters 
long by 23 wide, hence his shell was a little more than half as wide as 
long, thus giving a width which in proportion to the length, is exceed- 
ingly rare in Strophia, and quite different from that of any S. regia 
which I have ever seen. There can be little, if any doubt, but what 
Mr. Benson was mistaken in saying the shell he described came from 
China, but how he came to give such a widely different width than is 
to be found in specimens of S. regia which came from Castle Island, 
Bahamas, is more difficult to say, and were it not for the fact that three 
years later, in 1852, Kuester, who was evidently familiar with Ben- 
son’s type, gave a new description, ( his dimensions being 19’” long 
by 7 1-2”’ ) and an excellent figure of what we now know to be a typ - 
ical Castle Island S. regia ( Chem. ed II, Pupa, plate 17, figs. 13 and 
14 ) I should be inclined to doubt that Benson had this species at all, 
but some other species which came from some different key. It is 
noteworthy that Kuester also gives the habitat of the species as Nankin ? 
China, and it was not until about 1881, that conchologists became 
aware that this fine shell came from Castle Island, Bahamas. 
I add Benson’s original description from the work cited at the 
head of this article, with a translation. Benson in some prefatory 
remarks, seems quite elated over the fact that he has discovered such a 
