Section B.
Parietes and basis sometimes permeated by pores, sometimes not: radii not permeated by pores: shell elongated in its rostro-carinal axis: basis boat-shaped: attached to Gorgoniæ and Milleporæ.
9. [BALANUS] STULTUS. Pl. [3], fig. [2 a]-[2 d].
Parietes and base porose: shell white, or faintly tinged with purple. Scutum with the basal margin protuberant in the middle. Tergum with the longitudinal furrow closed in the upper part: spur not closely adjoining the basi-scutal angle.
Hab.—Attached to Milleporæ, Singapore, Mus. Cuming. West Indies,[89] Mus. Brit.—Mus. Stutchbury.
[89] This specimen in the British Museum was purchased at the sale of the Rev. L. Guilding’s collection, and therefore it is not certain that this habitat is correct; but as it was sold in the same lot with a Cirripede certainly West Indian, and as the main collection was made in the West Indies, this habitat may, I think, be trusted.
I have considerable doubts whether it would not have been more correct to have placed this species in the last section, instead of where it now stands; it certainly is more closely allied to[ B. Ajax], especially in its operculum, than to the following species; yet the fact of the radii not being permeated by pores does not permit of its admission into the last section; and both in habits and structure it undoubtedly comes very near to the following species. Those varieties which are not much elongated, and which have the basis nearly flat, would certainly, if considered by themselves alone, not have gained admission into our present section.
General Appearance.—Shell conical, somewhat globular, more or less elongated in the rostro-carinal axis, owing to the basal production of the rostrum. Orifice, rather small, entire, oval, pointed at the carinal end. Radii moderately broad, with their summits parallel to the basis. Colour dirty white, often faintly tinged with purple; sheath, pale purplish-blue. Surface extremely smooth; the parietes are generally covered (as viewed through a lens) by a very thin, yellowish epidermis, giving to the whole a glistening, granular aspect: the radii are generally destitute of this epidermis, and are therefore of a dead white. The basis is concave, and sometimes deeply cup-formed; it is, however, not symmetrical; sometimes it is flat. Basal diameter of largest specimen, including the basis itself, 1.5 of an inch in the longitudinal axis; transverse diameter, 1 inch; the inequality in the length of the two diameters is rarely so great as in this unusually large specimen.