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Genus UROSALPINX Stimpson
1865. Urosalpinm .Stimpson, Am. Jour. Conchology, vol. 1, p. 58.
Type by original designation: FtMus cinereus Say. Prince Edward
Island, Canada, to San Augustine, Florida.
Shell elongated oval, or short fusiform, longitudinally ribbed
or undulated and spirally striated; aperture with a short canal.
Operculum somewhat like that of Purpura, semicordate, with
the nucleus at the outer edge a little below the middle. Lingual
dentition nearly like that of Trophon * * *.
It differs from Trophon in its operculum, and from Ocinebra
in its smoother shell, want of varices, and open canal."-Stimpson,
1865.
Dall, 19 1890, has compared Urosalpinm to a Eupleura
"in which the varices have become obscure or absent."
Urosalpinm is essentially a muricid in which the varices
have been subdued into costals of varying degrees of
prominence. Evidence of the family relationship, however,
is still retained even in the ornamentation, for
the surface is rasped, as a rule, by fine, sharp incremental
laminae.
The genus was . probably initiated as early as the
Eocene. Both the fossil and the Recent species are
best represented along the east coast of North America
and the Gulf. The most prolific of the Recent species
is the type, Uro8alpinm cinerea (Say), the common
oyster drill which has caused such havoc among the
oyster beds of the Middle Atlantic slope.
Urosalpinx trossula (Conrad)
Plate 31, figures 19, 20
1832. Fusus trossulus Conrad, Fossils of the Tertiary formation
of North America, p. 18, pl. 3, fig. 5.
1861. Fusus trosst-tlus Conrad, Fossils of the medial Tertiary
of the United States, 1st ed., p. 84, pl. 48, fig. 6; 2d ed.,
p. 89.
1863. N eptunea trossula Conrad, Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia
Proc. for 1862, p. 560.
1869. Siphonalia trossula Conrad, Am. Jour. Conch., vol. 4, p.
249.
1890. Urosalpinm trossulus Conrad. Dall, Wagner Free Inst.
Sci. Trans., vol. 3, pt. 1, -p. 148, pl. 7, fig. 12.
1903. Frosalpinm trossula (Conrad). Cossmann, Essais paleoconchologie
comp., vol. 5, p. 49, pl. 2, figs. 11, 12.
Fusiform; cancellated, with longitudinal ribs and revolving
striae, alternated in size; whorls rounded and regular; beak
short, slightly recurved; right lip thick, striated within.
Locality. James River, near Smithfield, Va.-Conrad, 1832.
This species is very variable; the typical form is rather more
elongated than the specimen figured, which is an especially
blunt and short variety. In the type-specimens of Conrad, which
are still preserved, the sculpture is of rather broad primary
spirals with a single, much narrower, secondary thread between
each pair and two extremely fine tertiary spiral lines, one on
each side of the secondary. The faint transverse riblets are
subequal, regular and separated by about equally wide interspaces
; the suture, though distinct, is not deep and the whorls
are rather compact. The primary spirals are undulated, but
not granular, and. the granulations on the others are incon-
19 Dall, W. H., Contributions to the Tertiary fauna of Florida:
Wagner Free Inst. Sci. Trans., vol. 3, pt. 1, p. 147, 1890.
754992-48-4
PART 2. SCAPHOPODA AND GASTROPODA 223
spicuous. In one of the Pliocene forms (which may be called
variety subsiaus) the spirals have become subequal, narrow
and granulous, with more distinct interspaces, the whorls are
less compact, and the transverse ribs on the last whorl or two
are sparse, :i¥egular, and obsolete or nearly so. The sculpture
of this variety is very elegant; it appears to be confined to the
Pliocene, and has been found both on the Caloosahatchee and
Shell Creek. It is connected by intermediate varieties with
the typical form.-Dall, 1890.
Dimensions of figured specimen: Height, 28.7 mm.;
1naximum diameter, 14.0 mm.
Figured specimen: U. S. N. M. 325422, from 8 to 9
miles southeast of Greenville, Pitt County, N. C. Y arktown
formation.
U rosalpinw trossula (Conrad) ranges widely in relative
proportions and in the degree of development of
the axial sculpture. In the type the costals are in conspicuous,
undulatory, irregular in spacing, and 19 on
the final volution. In many individuals, they become
obsolete toward the aperture and even on the entire
body whorl. This species is the most abundant representative
of the genus in the Tertiary.
Distribution: Virginia: Yorktown formation, Yorktown,
York County i 5 miles northeast of Smithfield and 1% miles
northeast of Smithfield, James River, Isle of Wight County; a
half to three-fourths of a mile above the lower Seaboard Air
Line Railroad bridge, Southampton County; Exit, 1 mile west
of Suffolk, 1% miles north of Suffolk, 1% miles northeast of
Suffolk, and half a mile below Suffolk waterworks dam, Nansemond
County.
North Carolina: Yorktown formationt 1% to 2 miles above
Branchs Bridge over the Meherrin River, Northampton County;
1% miles above Murfreesboro, and 1 mile above Murfreesboro,
Meherrin River; 3 to 4 miles below Tar Ferry, Hertford County;
Colerain Landing on the Chowan River, Bertie County ; Swift
Creek and 1 mile below Old Sparta Bridge, Edgecombe County ;
2 miles below Toddy Station, 2 miles southeast of Tugwell, 2%
miles north of Standard, S miles southwest of Frog Level on
Mr. J. A. Noble's Branch, 6 miles below Greenville, 6%, miles
below Greenville, 8 to 9 miles southeast of Greenville, and 1
mile northwest of Galloway Crossroads, Pitt County; 1 mile
northeast of Chocowinity, Beaufort County; 1 mile north of
Castoria, Greene County. Duplin marl, 4 miles north of Lumberton,
2 miles below Lumberton, 4 to 5 miles below Lumberton,
1% miles northeast of Fairmont on the farm of Mr. Andrew
Jones, and at Fairmont, Robeson County. Waccamaw formation,
Lake Waccamaw, Columbus County; Wilmington, New
Hanover County.
Outside distribution : Miocene, Cancellaria zone of the Chocta
wha tchee formation ( ? ) , Fla., Pliocene, Caloosachatchee marl,
Caloosahatchee River and Shell Creek, Fla.
U rosalpinx phrikna Gardner and Aldrich
Plate 28, figures 4, 5, 11
1919. Urosalpinm phrilcnos Gardner and Aldrich, Acad. Nat. Sci.
Philadelphia, Proc., p. 35, pl. 4, figs. 2, 4, 6, 7.
Shell of medium size, moderately stout, the greatest
diameter falling close to the median line. Aperture
approximately half the total height. Whorls of spire
convex, obscurely shouldered, decreasing rapidly in
size toward the subacute apex. Protoconch of 11j 2