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it to Sowerby. In 1849 Reeve says, “It was first described 
by Mr. Broderip from a specimen of rather large size in the 
celebrated Tankerville Collection, now in the British 
Museum,” and places Broderip’s name before Sowerby’s in 
his references. This strange mistake evidently misled Pet- 
terd, who cites Broderip as the author of the species; but 
later writers correctly give Sowerby his due. Reeve is the 
first to give the habitat of the species, namely, South Aus- 
tralia. In my copy of the Tankerville Catalogue the price 
against the type specimen is £31 10s. 
Variations.—It is very variable; one from Adcock’s col- 
lection, not quite mature, is 7 in. long by 17°77 cm. by 83 cm. 
The type is described as 6 in. by 3in. Mr, Mathews tells me 
in a letter that the largest he has seen was 8 in. by 34 in., 
taken on Troubridge Island. But a mature shell, with 
ascending suture and fully-formed lip, may be only 3 in. 
by 1°55 in. 
Another example is 4°38 in. by 17 in., so that if it were 
6 in. long it would be only 24 wide—more than 4 in. less in 
diameter than the type. The shoulder, too, may be more 
marked than in the type, which is rather high-shouldered, 
and may be somewhat more concave below the suture. When 
senile the inner lip may have a thick axial pad of callus 
extending a full inch beyond the aperture. The glaze of the 
inner lip not only extends very. far laterally over the body- 
whorl, but towards the spire for half an inch or more above 
the suture, and in shells with rusty-brown staining this covers 
the stain over and leaves a broad, wavy, whitish band above 
the suture throughout the last spire-whorl. 
Tryon says, “V. fulgetrum, in fact, is intermediate 
between J’. fusiformis and V. papillosa, and very probably 
the three are merely diverse forms of one species.” I think 
the three species are distinct, the protoconch of S. fulgetrum 
is a sufficient diagnostic from either of the other species. 
Sowerby, in the Thes. Conch., refers to one variety (S. 
dictua, n. var., Verco, Trans. Roy. Soc., 8.A., 1909, vol. 
xxxiii., p. 274, pl. xxi., fig. 7) which has only a delicate 
reticulate lace-like colouration, and a second which has two 
rows of chestnut spots on the last volution. But the colour 
variations are quite numerous. 
1. There is the typical shell with the axial zizag brown 
dashes from which the shell derives its name. It will be 
noticed these tend to have two spiral rows of blotches, one 
just below the shoulder and the other over the lower part of 
the body-whorl. The blotches are roughtly crescentic or 
arrow-headed, with their concavity towards the outer lip. 
At the suture the markings are flame-like. 
