Page:American Seashells (1954).djvu/259

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
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.

Hexagonal Murex

Plate 2 5h

Genus Muricopsis Bucquoy, Dautz. and DoUfuss 1882

Muricopsis hexagona Lamarck

Florida Keys and the West Indies.

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 Con- rad; e, Urosalpinx chierea Say; f, Pseiidoneptunea vndtangida Philippi; g, Muri- copsis ostreanim Conrad. All about i inch in length.