
224 
2. There may be two spirals of large crescentic or arrow- 
headed spots, with flames at the suture; var. lunulisligata. 
3. These may be reduced to two spirals of small spots the 
size of peppercorns; var. punctisligata. 
4, There may be no spots except a few small ones on the 
first and second spire-whorls, the surface being more or less 
deeply and densely reticulated with brown; var. dictua, 
Verco. 
5. The axial lightning zigzags may be crossed by two 
continuous deep purple-brown bands, one below the shoulder, 
the other over the lower part of the yvolution; var. con- 
nectens. 
6. The only colour ornament may be these two bands and 
some small flames at the suture, all the axial markings being 
absent; var. bicincta. 
7, The subsutural flames may unite to form a third 
spiral band; var. ¢tricincta. 
8. Only the lower spiral band may be present, but this 
quite valid; var. wnicincta. 
9. There may be no colour-markings, the shell being pure 
white; var. alba. 
T have had several of these colour varieties reproduced in 
pl. xi. and xii. 
The habitat of the species is very restricted. It has 
been taken in both Gulf St. Vincent and Spencer Gulf, and 
at some points is a fairly common shell. Mr. Mathews says 
the blacks tell him the animal lives on sandbanks nine or ten 
chains from the shore, which are covered by about 18 in. of 
water at low spring tide. He has taken them crawling ashore. 
It has been collected as far to the east as Kingston, in Lace- 
pede Bay. I found none on the beaches from Sceales Bay to 
Point Sinclair, nor on St. Francis Island nor at Esperance, 
Hopetoun, King George Sound, nor on the west coast of Aus- 
tralia. It has not been recorded from Victoria. 
Its bathymetrical distribution is interesting. Taken alive, 
of large size and beautifully painted, in all its varieties in 
the shallow water of the gulfs, and with only the lace-like 
reticulations, from the lobster-pots ati Port Victor, and in 75 
to 120 fathoms of water from 40 to 120 miles west of Eucla, 
9 examples. The shells from these greater depths were all 
dead, mostly the home of hermit crabs, and all had the faint 
reticulated ornament except two, which showed the single 
deep band; none had the axial lightning markings. 
§caphella verconis, tate, =o odoey 
_- ==) Voluta verconis, Tate, Trans. Roy. Soc., 8.A., 1892, vol. xv., 
= 2195, pl. i., fig. 5: Type locality—Gulf St. Vincent (Verco). 
