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BUCCINIDAE 229
Colus pubescens Verrill Hairy Colus
Gulf of St. Lawrence to off North Carolina.
Plate 231
2 to 2% inches in length, very similar to stimpsoni, but the aperture is
about % the entire length of the shell, the suture more abruptly impressed,
the whorls slightly more convex and the siphonal canal usually, but not
always, more twisted. Very commonly dredged from 18 to 640 fathoms.
Colus pygmaea Gould Pygmy Colus
Plate 23m
Gulf of St. Lawrence to off North Carolina.
Less than i inch in length, with 6 to 7 fairly convex whorls, fairly frag-
ile, chalk-white, with spiral incised lines, and covered with a light olive-gray,
thin, velvety periostracum. Aperture slightly more than % the length of the
entire shell. Commonly dredged from i to 640 fathoms.
Coins caelata Verrill and Smith (Massachusetts to North Carolina, deep
water) is about the same size, but is characterized by about 12 strong axial
ribs per whorl in addition to numerous fine spiral threads. It is chalky-white
to gray.
Colus spitzbergensis Reeve Spitzbergen Colus
Figure 5ih
Bering Sea to Washington State. Arctic Seas to Gulf of St. Lawrence.
2/4 to 3 inches in length, rather light-shelled, and with 6 fairly wellrounded
whorls. Spire long and of about 30 to 35 degrees. Siphonal canal
short; columella almost straight. Outer lip flaring, slightly thickened. Sculp-
ture of numerous (12 to 14 between sutures) low, flat-topped, small, equally
sized spiral cords. Chalk-gray with a reddish to yellowish brown, thin peri-
ostracum. Commonly dredged from i to 142 fathoms.
Genus Nepumea Roding 1798
Neptunea decevicostata Say Brown-corded Neptune
Nova Scotia to Massachusetts.
Plate 23s
3 to 4H inches in length, rather heavy. Characterized by its grayish-
white, rather smooth shell which bears 7 to 10 very strong, reddish-brown,
spiral cords. The upper whorls show 2 to 3 cords. There is an additional
band of brown just below the suture. A common cold-water species found
offshore, but occasionally washed up on New England beaches.