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MURICIDAE 209
1% to 2 inches in length; spire half the length of the grayish white shell;
6 whorls with numerous, indistinct to moderately well-developed, rounded
ribs and more numerous, small, frequently scaled, spiral cords—all of which
gives the shell a rough, sandpaper feel. Whorls in spire shouldered slightly.
Aperture enamel-white. References in 1937 and earlier to Trophon tejmi-
sculptus Carpenter are this species. The true temiiscidptiis is an Ocenebra.
Genus Muricopsis Bucquoy, Dautz. and DoUfuss 1882
Muricopsis hexagona Lamarck
Florida Keys and the West Indies.
Hexagonal Murex
Plate 2 5h
I to I /4 inches in length, elongate, heavy, with a high spire, and sharply
spinose on each of the 7 axial ribs on each whorl. Exterior chalk-white or
tinted with orange-brown. Aperture white. A moderately common reef
species. The genus Muricidea Morch 1852, not Swainson 1840, is the same
as this genus.
Figure 47. Oyster Drills of the Atlantic Coast, a, Eiipleiira stimpsoni Dall; b,
Eiipleiira caudata Say; c, Eiipleiira sidcidevtata Dall; d, Urosalpinx pernigata Conrad;
e, Urosalpinx chierea Say; f, Pseiidoneptunea vndtangida Philippi; g, Muri-
copsis ostreanim Conrad. All about i inch in length.