Oliva australis var. indica
"Small, spindle- or barrel-shaped, with broadly conical or very slightly extraconic spire measuring from less than one-fifth to somewhat less than one-third of the total height, its most usual proportion being one-fourth. The protoconch is relatively large, naticoid, sometimes slightly oblique to the axis of the remainder of the shell, consisting of a minute nucleus followed by three or four moderately convex whorls. The mode of its termination and of its junction with the spire proper, cannot be exactly ascertained because its later portion is always more or less encroached upon by the callus which spreads from the aperture of the definitive shell and which, although very thin, suffices nevertheless to obliterate the junction in such a manner as to convey the impression of a perfectly gradual passage from the protoconch to the remainder of the shell. The protoconch is followed by three spire-whorls marked off by a deeply incised, rather narrow, spiral groove. The slope between successive volutions of the groove is either exactly subulate, or it may exhibit a slight posterior concavity and anterior convexity. There are no distinctly visible sutures as the floor of the spiral groove does riot contain any line of division between adjacent whorls, the posterior margin of the groove being constituted by the callous thickening of the columellar lip which extends over the surface of each previous whorl, almost or quite to the previous volution of the spiral groove, as an extremely thin coating, the exact limit of which, in most cases, cannot be detected. The body-whorl measures from a little over four-fifths to a little over seven-eighths of the total height. It is somewhat unsymmetrically barrel-shaped, tapering more gradually and with a feebler degree of curvature towards its anterior extremity than towards the limit of the spire in the neighbourhood of which the convexity is much more pronounced, with the result that the maximum thickness of the shell is situated nearer to its apex than to its anterior termination. Nevertheless the posterior convexity is connected with the more gently tapering anterior outline by means of a perfectly continuous curvature without any tendency towards the formation of an angulation. The terminal notch is rather narrow and very deep, the zone of its accretions forming a distinctly raised surface with a sharply demarcated posterior edge. The narrow aperture is posteriorly contracted into a narrow channel continuous with the spiral groove of the spire. In an anterior direction the apertural margins diverge gradually. The inner border is steeply oblique and, for the greater part, very feebly convex, the obliquity becoming slightly more pronounced and the outline straight or very slightly convex along the anterior termination of the columella. The columellar lip is mostly extremely thin, its edge being recognisable only by the presence of a very thin line or by some slight difference in colour or texture of the surface. Near the posterior termination of the aperture the edge of the columellar lip is nearly vertical; it gradually becomes more antecurrent in an anterior direction. Beyond the posterior termination of the aperture it swells into the somewhat feeble callosity that constitutes the posterior margin of the posterior terminal apertural channel and of the spiral groove of the spire. The portion of the columellar lip immediately anterior to the posterior termination of the aperture is smooth. Beyond this smooth portion it carries short transverse ridges which increase in distinctness and in obliquity in an anterior direction. They vary a great deal in number, prominence, width, and distribution, in various specimens. Posteriorly to the anterior columellar swelling their number may be as few as four or as many as eleven, the specimens with numerous ridges being usually larger, but the number varying greatly amongst specimens of the same size. The portion carrying the ridges is usually of approximately uniform extent in all specimens, so that the ridges are wider-spaced when they are few than when they are numerous. Irrespective of their number they may be narrower or wider than the intervening spaces. They may be very feebly prominent or else sharply demarcated, simple or bifid. When they are broad, their posterior margin often exhibits a blade-like appearance, the ridges apparently overlapping one another like a series of scales, the posterior sharp edge of each ridge simulating the free edge of the scale. The last of the ridges posterior to the columellar swelling is usually situated on the inward continuation of the edge of the terminal zone of accretions which, towards the aperture, converges so strongly with the very sharply raised blade-like posterior edge of the columellar swelling, that these two features almost come into contact. Nevertheless, in the case of specimens with an exceptionally large number of ridges along the columellar lip, a thin additional ridge may yet intervene between the border of the zone of accretions and the border of the columellar swelling. Another short ridge is developed on the edge of the cohimellar swelling where it penetrates into the aperture, and the space between this ridge and the anterior columellar folds carries two or three more ridges, occasionally only one, especially in small specimens. There are two close-set, conspicuous, anterior, columellar folds of which the more posterior one is posteriorly as sharply demarcated with as blade-like a margin as the posterior edge of the columellar swelling. Anteriorly to this pair of folds the anterior termination of the columella may be smooth, or it may carry from one to four feeble folds of which only the first one is sometimes moderately prominent. The outer lip is steeply retrocumnt to the posterior channel, the greater part of its course being practically vertical and so feebly convex as to appear practically straight. The surface of the shell is very highly glazed, sometimes with indications of what appears to have been a finely mottled pattern.".