West Coast Nassariidae — Demond 
usually corneous, ovoid in shape, with plain 
or serrated margins. The lingual teeth are 
arched and pectinate; the uncini possess a 
basal horn and, occasionally, intermediate 
serrations. 
Genus Nassarius Dumeril, 1805 
Arcularia Martini, Neves Syst. Conch. Cab., 
2: 18, 1771. 
Nassarius Dumeril, Zool. Analyt., p. 166, 
1806 [genus without species]; Froriep’s 
translation, p. 167, 1806, only species add- 
ed, Buccinum arcularia [fide Iredale, Make. 
Soc. London, Proc. 12: 80, 81, 82, 1916]. 
Arcularia Link, Beschr. Nat. Samml. Univ. 
Rostock, p. 126, 1807. 
I Eione Risso, Hist. Nat. Eur. Merid., 4: 171, 
1826; Herrmannsen, Indicis Gen. Make., 
1: 414, 1847. 
"'Nassa Martini” H. and A. Adams, Gen. 
Rec. Moll., 1: 116, 1853. 
TYPE SPECIES: Buccinum arcularia Linnaeus, 
Syst. Nat., ed. 10, p. 737, 1758; figured by 
Reeve, Conch. Icon., Vol. 8, Nassa, pi. 4, 
figs. 25a, 25b, 1853. 
TYPE locality: Philippine Islands; Recent 
(Reeve, 1853). 
Since the Nassariidae are molluscs which 
have been known and collected for many 
years, they have a long and varied taxonomic 
history. Martini’s genus Arcularia, 1771, 
seems to be the earliest name in the literature. 
This author named Arcularia as a section of 
Gale odes or Semicassis, which he called a sub- 
genus of Cassis. He included Arcularia major 
Martini in his species list. This species is said 
to be synonymous with Buccinum arcularia 
Linnaeus. Consequently, Buccinum arcularia, 
by absolute tautonomy, becomes the geno- 
type. However, Martini’s work is generally 
disregarded as not being consistently bino- 
mial. 
Arcularia Link, 1807, has been used by 
some authors for this genus. However, it is 
an absolute synonym of Nassarius Dumeril. 
Dali (1917, 1921) and Oldroyd (1927) used 
the family name Alectrionidae and the gen- 
303 
eric name Alectrion Montfort, 1810. The type 
of Montfort’s genus was Buccinum papillosum 
Linnaeus, a mollusc which differs greatly from 
B. arcularia, the type of Nassarius. The shell 
of B. papillosum is heavy and large, with a 
thick outer lip, a prominent posterior canal, 
and a somewhat narrow but heavy callus. 
As B. papillosum differs so much from the west 
coast species, the use of Alectrion for these 
species has been rejected. 
Although Woodring (1946) doubts the val- 
idity of using Nassarius and prefers '' Nassa,” 
the opinion of recent authors seems to be to 
accept Nassarius Dumeril as a substitute for 
Nassa Lamarck. Froriep (1806), in his trans- 
lation of Dumeril, assigned only the species 
Buccinum arcularia Linnaeus to Nassarius. Con- 
sequently, this species becomes the genotype 
by nionotypy. 
The author’s opinion is that Nassarius Du- 
meril is the preferable name to use until a 
comprehensive taxonomic revision of the 
family is completed. 
The question of the valid subgeneric divi- 
sions of Nassarius also awaits further study. 
Various subgenera have been proposed, but 
many are arbitrary and difficult to apply. A 
general practice has been to use Schizopyga 
for N. f OSS at us, N. perpinguis, N. californianus, 
N. cerritensis, and N. mendicus. N. tegtda is 
close to the type of the genus and is con- 
sidered to represent Nassarius proper. The 
entire family needs careful evaluation before 
valid subgenera can be recognized. Since only 
a limited geographic area is covered in the 
present paper, the author has entirely ex- 
cluded subgeneric classification. 
Twelve species and two subspecies of Nas- 
sarius live in the area between Cape San Lucas 
and Cape Flattery. Some of these species are 
among the earliest molluscs known to science 
from this area. Only species found living in 
this area at present are considered here, al- 
though many members of the family are also 
common as fossils. 
Nassarius is the only genus of this family 
found within the area considered here. 
