262 
MARINE SHELLS OF WEST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA 
Type in United States National Museum. Type locality, Bering 
Island. 
Range. Arctic Ocean north of Bering Sea. 
Genus VOLUTHARPA Fischer, 1856 
Shell ventricose, thin; spire short, body-whorl and aperture very 
large. Operculum usually wanting; when present, at first with apical 
nucleus, afterward becoming annular. (Tryon, Structural and Systematic 
Conchology .) 
This little group of Mollusks is confined in distribution to the North 
Pacific, its metropolis being Japan. Three species were described as 
Bullia, from which genus it differs in its simple foot and in possessing 
eyes as well as in dentition. The form and porcellaneous texture of the 
shell are like Bullia, and serve to separate it from Buccinum. With regard 
to the Volutharpa ampullacea, a very remarkable fact may be mentioned. 
The majority of the individuals are without opercula, even without a 
trace of the pad-like gland or area from which the operculum is secreted. 
About ten per cent are without, and about fifteen per cent have well- 
developed opercula in the proper position. The ovicapsules are not at all 
like those of Buccinum , but rather like those of Busycon, though smaller, 
consisting of disk-like capsules, united by one edge to a ribbon or stalk. 
(Dali.) 
Type. Volutharpa ampullacea Middendorff. 
Range. North Pacific, also Japan. 
Volutharpa perryi Jay, 1855 
Report of the Japan Expedition, 295; PI. 5, figs. 13-15. 
Testa ovato globulosa, tenuicula, basim versus inflata, spira breve, 
acuta, suturis impressis, anfractibus laevigatis, flavido, cinerea, aperturae 
fauce rubiginosa. (Jay.) 
Shell ovately globulose, rather thin, inflated toward the base, spire 
short, acute, sutures impressed, whorls smooth, color yellowish-ash, in¬ 
terior of aperture rusty brown. 
Type in American Museum of Natural History, New York. Type 
locality, Bay of Yedo, Japan. 
Range. St. Paul Island, Bering Sea; also Japan. 
Volutharpa ampullacea Middendorff, 1848 
Sibirische Reise, 237; PI. 17, figs. 1-3. 
Testa ovata, intense purpurea, spira brevissima, anfractibus convexius- 
culis ultimo permagno; suturis abrupte-subcanaliculatis; labio laevigato; 
[ 262 ] 
