. The sea-beach at ebb-tide : a guide to the study of the seaweeds and the lower animal life found between tidemarks . er.(1late LXIX.) FAMILY VEKMETIDJE GENUS Vfiiniriil((ria V. spiratd. This is a very curious creaturewhen considered from the point of view of thegasteropod mollusk. It seems at first as thoughit would be better to regard it as a worm whichhad created for itself a calcareous covering. Butit is a true prosobranch notwithstanding the factthat it has departed widely from the conven-tional design in the fashioning of its shell. Atfirst the shell starts out in a regular form, andthe
. The sea-beach at ebb-tide : a guide to the study of the seaweeds and the lower animal life found between tidemarks . er.(1late LXIX.) FAMILY VEKMETIDJE GENUS Vfiiniriil((ria V. spiratd. This is a very curious creaturewhen considered from the point of view of thegasteropod mollusk. It seems at first as thoughit would be better to regard it as a worm whichhad created for itself a calcareous covering. Butit is a true prosobranch notwithstanding the factthat it has departed widely from the conven-tional design in the fashioning of its shell. Atfirst the shell starts out in a regular form, andthen the whorls become separated, finally wander-ing about in a seemingly aimless manner. Theirregular prolongation sometimes measures teninches in length. The animal is in no way re-markable except in having the viscera greatlyelongated and the foot very short and broad. Thecolor of the animal is light brown with ; the shell-color is rufous or of this genus are often found groupedtogether in an inextricable mass. It is foundin shallow water from New Kngland to Florida. FAMILY STROMBIDJE. I* i-iiiii iilnrin s/ii Tins is ;i particularly interesting family, but it is tropical, andis represented on the shores of the Inited Slates by only one 376 MARINE INVERTEBRATES genus, Strombus, of which we have but a few species. Strombus isa scavenger,—a buzzard among mollusks,—and its sense of smellis evidently very acute. Its eyes are much more highly devel-oped than the usual gasteropod visual organs, and they are placedat the tip-ends of two very substantial eye-stalks or tentacles are slender and project from the eye-pedicels. Thefoot is curiously developed; that portion of it which would nat-urally constitute the creeping-disk is exceedingly small, but themetapodium (the hinder part of the foot, upon which the opercu-lum is situated) is very large. The corneous operculum upon itsend, which is far too small to close the entrance of the shell w
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectmarinea, bookyear1901
