Bulletin - United States National Museum - Smithsonian Institution

SOUTH AFRICAN MARINE MOLLUSKS. 59
Family MURICIDAE.
Genus MUREX Linnaeus.
MUREX UNCINARIUS Lamarck.
Cat. No. 1 6861 , U.S.N.M., one from Cape of Good Hope. Cat. No.
91701, U.S.N.M., three collected by Layard at the same place. Cat.
No. 98005, U.S.N.M., three from Albany. Cat. No. 186772, U.S.N .M.,
one from Port Alfred (Coll. No. 133), and Cat. No. 252155, U.S.N.M.,
one from Africa without specific locality. Cat. No. 272150, U.S.N .M.,
one specimen from Algoa Bay. Cat. No. 272151, U.S.N.M., three
from the Cape of Good Hope.
MUREX ALFREDENSIS, new species.
Plate 37, fig. 6.
Shell small, yellowish white, with a zone of wax yellow, which
extends over the central half of each whorl, leaving the posterior half
between the sutures and the basal tip white. (Nuclear whorls decol-
lated); postnuclear whorls well rounded, ornamented with strong
lamellar ribs of which ten occur upon all the whorls. These lamellae
are slender, recurved, and project at their tips considerably above
the strong shoulder of the whorls. The intercostal spaces are scarcely
at all depressed, they are about three times as wide as the ribs and are
marked by slender and equally spaced spiral threads, of which seven
occur upon the first, eight upon the second, and ten upon the penultimate
whorl between the sutures. In addition to the above-mentioned
sculpture, the spire is marked by numerous, very fine axial lines of
growth; summits tabulatedly shouldered; the shoulder crossed by the
ribs. Periphery of the last whorl gently rounded. Base quite prolonged,
marked by the continuations of the axial ribs which extend
quite prominently to the extreme anterior portion of the base, and
about fifteen equal and equally spaced, spiral threads, which are
equal to those of the spire in strength and spacing. Aperture
strongly channeled anteriorly; outer lip reenforced by a very thick
varix which is expanded and flattened and is marked by the spiral
sculpture; inner Up strongly curved, reflected over and appressed
to the base, parietal wall covered by a thick callus.
The type, Cat. No. 227763, comes from Port Alfred. It has four
postnuclear whorls, and measures: Length, 6 mm.; diameter, 3 mm.
(Coll. No. 858).
Genus TROPHON Montfort.
TROPHON KOWIENSIS Sowerby.
Cat. No. 187032, U.S.N .M., one from Port Alfred (Coll. No. 568).
Cat. No. 227766, U.S.N.M., two specimens from the same locality
(Coll. No. 861).