aS Murex pumilus A. Adams, 1854
Darros Island, Amirantes, in 22 fms., on a broken-coral bottom ; China Sea (Adams).
This charming little species consists of seven whorls, three apical smooth and convex, and four normal. It is of a pink or almost scarlet colour, has six rounded costae on the body-whorl and seven on the upper volutions ; these are crossed by scabrous spiral ridges, of which there are two to three principal ones on the upper whorls, more slender ones intervening between them and the suture, and about seven on the last. The entire surface is beautifully ornamented by raised lines of growth, so that the transverse ridges are very prettily squamose. The aperture is small, ovate, and contracted anteriorly into a narrow but not closed canal. The labrum is well thickened exteriorly by the last varix, crenulated at the thin margin, and finely lirate within. Sowerby mentions an orange-coloured variety of this species ; but this is unknown to me. His figure is very coarsely executed, magnified to more than twice the actual length of the shell, and shows only four costae on the whorls, whilst five are always visible from any point of view.