| OCR Text |
Show 1873.] MR. R. B. WATSON ON MADEIRAN MOLLUSKS. 383 (not below) the suture, but best of all by the spiral striae on embryonic whorl and by the dark point on the tip. In this respect it resembles R. novarensis and R. canariensis, but cannot possibly be confounded with them. I have felt the greatest hesitation in the identification of this species. After examining a specimen of Cingula maculata, Mont., kindly sent me by the Marquis de Monterosato, I was on the whole persuaded that his species and mine from Madeira are really the same. But maculata is a specific name already appropriated by Brown to R. inconspicua, a fact which makes it an undesirable one for another species unless there be no escape. But is Manzoni's name, which I have adopted as being earlier, really preferable 1 As to his description I am really unable to say what it suits, as his R. callosa and R. depicta want individuality; and the specimens kindly sent me by Mr. M'Andrew of these two species have not helped me much. Still, on the whole, from the descriptions and from the specimens, I infer:-first, that there are two species to be identified ; secondly, that among specimens in m y possession bearing the names of the two species are some specimens which most probably belong to the same species as m y specimens from Madeira (which I had proposed to call R. punctifera, from their black-pointed tip). Hence I infer that this is probably the species which Manzoni meant to describe under the name R. depicta, and that the name indicates the bleached condition of the specimens which served for his description-a fact which will explain his statement that the species is "depourvue de toute espece de taches." In the end, it has been for me a choice of evils ; but a mistaken identification, if it should so prove, is less injurious than a false manufacture of a new species. I therefore, noting the difficulty, call m y Madeiran species by the name of Manzoni's species from Teneriffe, leaving at the same time my M S . name in case it should ultimately be wanted. RISSOA PULCHERRIMA, Jeffreys. (Plate XXXVI. fig. 21.) Not in M'Andrew's list. Hab. Gorgulho, shore; Santa Cruz, 10-15 fathoms; Machico, 10-15 fathoms ; Piedade (Canigal), 15-35 fathoms ; Ponta S. Lourengo, 25-45 fathoms ; Funchal Bay, up to 50 fathoms ; Porto Santo, up to 50 fathoms. I give this species as R. pulcherrima on the authority of Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys ; but for his judgment and in the absence of actual specimens I should have found the descriptions and figures, so far as I know them, too unlike the Madeira form, which is smaller, longer and narrower, contracted at the mouth, and with an open shallow suture. RISSOA PERMINIMA, Manzoni. (Plate XXXVI. fig. 22.) Shell conic-oval, short, thinnish, with a suffused brown horny transparency. Sculpture smooth, with close-set slightly bent microscopic lines of growth. |
