The species most abundant in the Channel is the little Coccinella, already mentioned; it is very small, oval, tun-bellied, the opening dilated in front with smooth transverse stripes of greyish, tawny, or rose-colour, with or without spots.
Cypræa mappa (Pl. XXII., Fig. IV.) is oval-shaped, swelling below its sides, well-rounded, ornamented with small white spots below, with a dorsal branching line above; the interior is violet colour, with thirty-six teeth on one side, and forty-two on the other. It belongs to the Indian Ocean.
The Harlequin Cowrie, Cypræa histrio (Figs. V. and VI.), from the coast of Madagascar, is ornamented with white spots very closely arranged, and much circumscribed above, with black spots upon the sides. The under side is violet.
Fig. 262. Natural size of Ovulum oviformis (Lamarck).
Fig. 263. Natural size of Ovulum cornea (Lamk.).
A very fine species, which is very common in collections, is found in the Indian Ocean, from Madagascar to the Moluccas—the Tiger Cowrie, already figured with its inhabitant. This shell (Fig. VII.) is large, oval, tun-bellied, thick, and convex, of a bluish white, ornamented with numerous broad, black, round spots, much scattered, and a straight dorsal line, brown above, and very white below. It has generally twenty-three teeth on each edge, quite white. Somewhat resembling the Tiger Cowrie is the Cypræa pantherina (Fig. 261), which is perhaps a variety of the same species. Another remarkable species is Cypræa argus, as represented in Pl. XXII. (Figs. VIII. and IX.)