"Cerion christophei new species

Plate I, fig. 2

Description.-Shell deeply rimate, cylindrical, solid and strong. Color porcellaneous white, the apex in most specimens a faint pink, more ap­parent when wet. Interior of aperture orange brown. Whorls eleven to eleven and a half, the last four nearly equal in size, early whorls tapering convexly to a rather pointed summit. Nuclear whorls very finely ribbed, strongest near the upper suture (14X), later whorls coarsely sculptured with widely spaced ribs. A few shells have all but the body whorl nearly smooth. The ribs number 20-22 on the body whorl. Spire produced at an angle of 77° (holotype). Aperture ovate with a much thickened lip, which extends backward one to two millimeters as a collar. Parietal lamella strongly developed but not extending within the aperture any distance. Columellar lamella smaller and extending within a full whorl.

Holotype.-Mus. Comp. Zo61., no. 116,006, Northeast Point (Chris­tophe's Palace), Great Inagua Island, Bahama Islands. James C. and Gil­bert Greenway collectors, 1936. Paratypes from the same locality.

This species is closely related to C. columna P. and V. of this same island. It differs, however, in several of its characters. In C. cbristophei the aperture has a much lighter brown colora­tion, has a thicker and a much greater back fold to the lip, fewer whorls, and in addition it possesses the somewhat pinkish spire tip.

This pinkish spire tip may indicate that at some time in the history of this particular form it crossed with some element of the Diacerion group which also is found on this island. Dia­cerion on Great Inagua is characterized in part by the strong pink to purplish pink coloration, a character not heretofore known in the group of C. regina, to which cbristophei belongs."