“VALVATELLA DULCIS.
(Pl. II., fig. 8.)
Shell turbinate, narrowly but deeply umbilicated, iridescent blue, more or less
obscured by whitish, close-set, oblique, thread-like lines of growth and less pearly spiral liræ; whorls 5-5½, convex, the first 2½ yellowish, the penultimate with three or four spiral liræ, the last with about eighteen, not counting some very fine ones within the umbilicus; four round the middle of the whorl stronger than the rest; apex smooth, obtuse; lines of growth more conspicuous between than upon the ridges, aperture irregularly rounded; peristome thin, outer margin grooved within, the grooves corresponding to the external ridges; columella a little arcuate, scarcely reflexed.
Greater diam., 9 millim.; height, 7; aperture, 4 wide.
Operculum yellowish, a little concave externally, consisting of about nine whorls.
Winter Quarters, June 18, 1903. In 130 fathoms.
The distinct lines of growth cross the spiral ridges, but are less conspicuous upon than between them. The aperture is more beautifully iridescent blue than the exterior. With regard to the use of the generic name Valvatella in preference to that of Margarita, see the writer’s remarks in the Proc. Malac. Soc., Vol. III. (1898), p. 205.”
(Smith, 1907: 10-11)
