Shell pinkish-purple or white, clothed by an orange-coloured membrane; radii represented by mere fissures; basis solid. Scutum, with a sharp, curved adductor ridge; with crests for the lateral depressor muscle: tergum, with the spur short, truncated, one third of width of valve.
Hab.—New Zealand, New South Wales, Mus. Brit. and Stutchbury; attached to shells.
General Appearance.—Shape conical, often steeply conical; orifice small; radii not developed, represented by mere fissures. The walls are smooth, or slightly, or strongly ribbed longitudinally. The shell itself is of a fine peach-blossom pink, or nearly white, but it is generally covered by a thick yellow or brownish-orange epidermis. Opercular valves pinkish, but similarly covered. Basal diameter of largest specimen .7 of an inch.
Scuta, with the lines of growth closely approximate; surface somewhat convex. Internally, the articular ridge is very little prominent, but runs far down the tergal margin; in some specimens, however, it is shorter and more prominent. The adductor ridge is strongly prominent, is curved towards the rostral angle, and runs down nearly to the basal margin. The rostral depressor muscle is lodged in a small cavity, formed, as usual, by the overlapping of the occludent margin; within this cavity there are either tolerably distinct little crests, or merely traces of them, for the attachment of the muscle. The lateral depressor muscle is attached to several quite distinct crests, seated in a concavity beneath the adductor ridge. Tergum rather narrow, with the apex produced or beaked; the beak is purplish and flat. There is a slight rounded longitudinal furrow, or depression. The spur is fully one third of the width of the valve: it is short, with the end truncated, and placed close to the basi-scutal angle; the basal margin on the carinal side slopes gently towards the spur. Internally, the scutal margin is scarcely at all inflected, and the articular ridge is very little prominent: the crests for the tergal depressores are pretty well developed.
From the points here enumerated, it is clear that the opercular valves are articulated together much less strongly than is usual with most species, excepting [B. allium] and its allies. It is remarkable that in this species the terga are united to the sheath, not, as is usual, by a single opercular membrane, but by five or six, one above the other, the upper membranes not having been exuviated as each new lower one was formed. The minute spines on the membrane lining the sheath are rather larger and more numerous than is usual, and to the base of each spine a tubulus of unusual diameter runs, imbedded in the shell.
The Walls, internally, have unusually numerous, narrow, approximate, strongly prominent, longitudinal ribs, denticulated at their bases, and inserted into the furrows on the borders of the basis: in old specimens these internal ribs die out in the upper part of the walls. The Radii are not developed in any of the many specimens which I have seen, and the edges of the compartments on both sides of each suture are equally marked by slight, irregular ridges or knobs, answering to the septa and their recipient furrows, in the species with ordinarily developed radii. There is very little diametric growth, the orifice being gradually enlarged by the disintegration of the upper ends of the walls; the alæ, however, in some specimens, do grow a little along their lateral or sutural edges, so that some little diametric growth must be effected. The summits of the alæ are very oblique; their sutural edges are plainly crenated. The sheath descends about half way down the walls. The Basis is flat, not permeated by pores, but deeply furrowed in lines radiating from the centre.
Mouth: labrum sometimes with no teeth, sometimes with four minute teeth; mandibles with four teeth, of which the third is blunt and rather large; the fourth is a mere knob. Maxillæ; there is, as usual, an upper pair of large spines (beneath which there is sometimes a small notch), but all the lower spines, instead of standing as usual in pairs, form a single row. Cirri; first pair with the rami remarkably unequal in length, one ramus having twenty-two segments, and being more than twice the length of the other, having only nine segments: these segments, and likewise those of the second and third pairs, have an inverted conical shape; and they are all less thickly clothed with spines than is usual. The second pair is short, about as long as the shorter ramus of the first pair, and has ten or twelve segments. The third pair is above twice as long as the second pair, and contains twenty-four segments: this very unusual length is owing to the presence of numerous thin tapering upper segments, unlike those generally found in [Balanus], in the third pair of cirri, and apparently serving as feelers. These upper tapering segments are of an inverted conical shape, and support on their upper margins two very small tufts of spines, one behind and one in front: on the segments lower down these tufts increase in size, and the spines are more spread out, so that in the basal segments, the tufts in front form on the upper margin two or three crowded rows of bristles. The three posterior pairs of cirri have elongated segments, which bear on their upper half three pairs of spines; of these the lowest pair is minute, and the middle pair is only one third of the length of the upper pair. The sixth cirrus, in the same individual as before, contained twenty-seven segments in each ramus, that is only three more than in the third cirrus! I must observe, that the cirri in all the specimens were irregular, often distorted and monstrous; and therefore, probably, there is considerable variation in the proportional numbers of the segments in the cirri.
At the base of the penis there is a minute, knife-edged, triangular projection. The branchiæ are rather narrow, pointed, and not very large.
Affinities.—This is a very distinct species, as shown by the peculiarities in the cirri, by the absence of radii to the shell, and by the presence of crests for the attachment of the lateral scutal depressores. With the exception of this latter character, the opercular valves clearly show, that [B. vestitus] is allied to [B. allium], [cepa], and [quadrivittatus]. In some respects this species manifests an affinity to [B. imperator], which latter has its third pair of cirri nearly similar to those of [B. vestitus].