Page:Scientific results HMS Challenger vol 18 part 1.djvu/511

Rh Dimensions.—Longer axis of the shell 0.12, shorter axis 0.09; pores and bars 0.004 to 0.006; length of the polar spines—longer 0.12, shorter 0.06.

Habitat.—Fossil in Barbados.

4. Lithomespilus flammabundus, n. sp. (Pl. 14, fig. 14).

Proportion of the major axis to the minor = 4 : 3. Shell thin walled, with irregular, roundish pores, partly simple, partly composed of three to six confluent pores; only six to eight pores on the half equator, twice to four times as broad as the bars. Surface spiny. Length of the conical irregular spines increasing towards the poles; each polar spine surrounded by a flame-shaped, circumpolar area of longer spines; all large spines (also the polar spines) curved or contorted at one pole and much stronger and more numerous than at the other; length variable, often equal to the longer axis.

Dimensions.—Longer axis of the shell 0.12, shorter axis 0.09; pores 0.005 to 0.015, bars 0.003 to 0.005; length of the polar spines 0.1 to 0.15.

Habitat.—Western part of the Tropical Atlantic, Station 347, depth 2250 fathoms.

Definition.— with simple ellipsoidal or pear-shaped shell; with a single spine only situated at one pole of the main axis.

The genus Lithapium represents a peculiar modification of Ellipsoxiphus; one of the two opposite polar spines disappears by reduction, and in this way only a single spine remains, at one pole of the main axis. For this reason the shell assumes a characteristic pear-shape, and may easily be confounded with some similar Monocyrtida (Halicapsa).

1. Lithapium pyriforme, n. sp. (Pl. 14, fig. 9).

Proportion of the longer axis to the shorter = 6 : 5. Shell thin walled, with regular, circular pores, four times as broad as the bars; six to eight on the half equator. Surface a little thorny. The single polar spines three-sided pyramidal, as broad at the base as one mesh, about as long as the radius of the shell. (In the specimen figured, there was on the opposite pole a little rudiment of the other lost polar spine; it is missing in other specimens.)

Dimensions.—Major axis of the ellipsoidal shell 0.12, minor axis 0.1; pores 0.02, bars 0.005; length of the single polar spine 0.05, basal thickness 0.02.

Habitat.—Central area of the Pacific, Station 266, depth 2750 fathoms.

2. Lithapium halicapsa, n. sp. (Pl. 14, fig. 8).

Proportion of the longer axis to the shorter = 6 : 5. Shell thin walled, with irregular, lobed meshes, six to eight on the half equator, twice to five times as broad as the bars; each mesh