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Show 732 ON S O M E K N O W N SPECIES O F S H E L L S . [June 18, tatingly pronounce it to be a bleached example of C. virgo; for in form and sculpture it is absolutely identical with certain specimens of that species, and differs only in colour. This variation may be due to bleaching; or it may possibly be an albino form. The purple base, which is so constant a character in this species, is traceable in a faint degree in Reeve's shell. He does not refer to this in his description; yet in the figure it has been represented by the artist. The species figured by Weinkauff in Kuster's Conchilien-Cabinet, pl. 32, figs. 1 and 2, apparently is the same as or very closely allied to that depicted by Reeve. In order to come to some decision in the matter, I commuicated with Dr. Brot, of Geneva, asking him for information respecting Lamarck's species, as his types in Delessert's collection have recently been obtained by the museum of that city. Unfortunately, it appears that Lamarck's Cones are not marked as in other genera, but placed on tablets bearing the designation L. According to a catalogue of Delessert's collection, Dr. Brot informes me that there ought to be five specimens of C. pastinaca; but only four are now to be found; the fifth (possibly that figured by Kiener) had disappeared before the collection reached Geneva. Of the remaining four, three existed in Lamarck's cabinet. None of these, however, has the dimensions indicated by that author. Two are considered by Dr. Brot small specimens of Conus quercinus ; for they are ornamented (indistinctly, however) with the fine thread-like brown lines which are characteristic of that species. The third shell he considers a diminutive specimen of that figured by Kiener ; for it so resembles the figure, that at first he thought that it had been enlarged for Kiener's plate. Finally, the fourth specimen of C. pastinaca, which is not from Lamarck's collection, resembles the form figured by Reeve under this name. Thus it appears that, under the name of C. pastinaca, the Delessert collection contains three species, viz. the C. pastinaca of Kiener (young), that of Reeve, also young, and, lastly, two small specimens of Conus quercinus. The question which now has to be settled is this:-Is the specimen in Delessert's collection, which is similar to Reeve's figure, really the same species as that delineated? if not, may it not be the true pastinacal In the British Museum the shell which accords most closely with the Lamarckian diagnosis is a worn specimen of C. tabidus, Reeve, figured in the 'Conchologia Iconica' under the name of C. hepaticus, Kiener (Conch. Icon. Suppl. pl. viii. fig. 278). EXPLANATION OF PLATE XLVI. Figs. 1, 2. Tellina wroblewskyi, p. 727. 3. Trochus (Thalotia) yokohamensis, p. 727. 4. Melania formosensis, p. 728, 5. formosensis, var., p. 728. 6. dicksoni, p. 728. 7. obliquigranosa, p. 729. 8. obliquigranosa, var., p. 7*30. 0. tuberculata, p. 729. |
