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NASSARIIDAE 2 39
Subgenus Hinia Gray 1847
Nassarms ambiguus Pulteney 1799 Variable Nassa
North Carolina to Florida and the West Indies.
Plate 231; figure 53a
V2 inch in length, relatively light-shelled, usually pure white in color,
but occasionally with i or 2 narrow, spiral bands of light yellowish brown.
Number of strong, axial ribs per whorl varies from 8 to 12. Upper part of
whorl sometimes shouldered. Numerous spiral, rounded cords are strong
or weak. Parietal shield enamel-v/hite, usually not well-developed. N . con-
sensus Ravenel is possibly only a form of this unusually variable species
(fig. 53b).
Nassarius trivittatus Say New England Nassa
Nova Scotia to South Carolina.
Plate 23
% inch in length, rather light-shelled, 8 to 9 whorls; nuclear whorls
smooth. Whorls in spire with 4 to 5 rows of strong, distinct beads. Parietal
wall thinly glazed with white enamel. Outer lip sharp and thin. Whorls
slightly channeled just below the suture. Color light-ash to yellowish gray.
Common from shallow water to 45 fathoms.
Nassarius perpinguis Hinds Western Fat Nassa
Puget Sound to Lower California.
Figure 530
% to I inch in length, fairly thin, with a rather fragile outer lip. Similar
to N. californianus, but with much finer sculpture (usually finely cancellate
or minutely beaded), and yellowish white in color with 2 or 3 narrow, spiral
bands of orange-brown, one of which borders the suture. The sculpture is
variable with spiral threads often predominant. Very abundant along most
of the coast. Intertidal flats to 50 fathoms.
Nassarius calijornianus Conrad Californian Nassa
Squaw Creek, Oregon, to Lower California.
I inch in length, without a thick parietal shield and the outer lip not
thickened. Shell with numerous, rather coarse beads arranged in 20 to 30
axial, slanting ribs. 11 to 12 spiral threads on the last whorl; 5 to 7 on the
whorls above. Color white with an ashy or yellow-gray periostracum.
Moderately common just offshore to 35 fathoms. Compare with perpinguis.
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