Sea Shells 
of New Zealand 
Plate VII 
No. 17 
Plate VI 
No. 12 
interior somewhat smooth, shiny and whitish, About 
seven inches in length; mostly found in deep water, 
Hauraki Gulf; Mayor Island ; Whale Island; Mount 
Maunganui; Cape Runaway ; New Brighton. 
FUSINUS SPIRALIS (fusis, a spindle; spiralis, spi- 
ral).—A very rare shell, fragile, and of the most elegant 
proportions, not unlike a Chinese pagoda. The protoconch 
is smooth, and consists of two bead-like whorls, the upper 
one rather larger than the lower one. The spire whorls are 
acutely angled at the shoulders, and increase regularly in 
size to the body whorl. The sculpture shows three fine, 
raised, equally-spaced ribs, spirally arranged, on the upper 
surfaces of the whorls, and a single row of blunted saw- 
like teeth projecting straight out from the keel of each 
whorl and ending at the outer lip. The mouth is triangu- 
lar, and terminates below in an unusually long, open, 
slender and straight canal. In colour, the shell is yellowish 
white with wavy streaks of a deeper shade longitudinally 
disposed. About two inches in length, or rather more. 
Found at the Great Barrier Island; Mount Maunganui; 
‘Cook Strait. 
Note.—The protoconch is the commencement of all 
spiral univalves, and is composed of one or more solid 
whorls at the extreme tip of the spire. It is, perhaps, best 
seen in the Volutes and Spindle shells. In many juvenile 
spirals, consisting of body whorl and protoconch only, this 
structure being of the same size as in the full-grown mol- 
lusc, appears out of all proportion to the shell, and may 
give rise to doubts as to its identity, until a series has been 
collected and examined. 
LATIRUS HUTTONI (Lathyrus, Ptolemy Soter II; 
Hutton, the conchologist).—This is the mollusc correctly 
described in Moss’s book as the Taron dubius, the above 
name, employed by Suter in his Manual, proving to be a 
synonym. It has a small black or dark brown fusiform or 
spindle-shaped spiral shell, and is found between tide marks 
in crevices of rock and on the dark under surface of over- 
hanging boulders in sheltered positions. The shell is sculp- 
tured with narrow rounded spiral ribs, and also broadly- 
rounded ribs disposed vertically down the whorls. The 
columella is white, the protoconch usually purple, the in- 
terior dark purple, and the inner side of the canal flesh- 
coloured or brownish. The distinguishing feature of the 
animal is its bright red salmon-coloured foot, which makes 
identification easy, even though the sculpture and colour 
of the shell be almost entirely obscured by a thick coating 
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