Pphia.~\ PELECYPODA. 997 



yellowish-white. Interior white, the posterior and sometimes the 

 upper part dark violet. Margins finely crenulate. Hinge-plate 

 moderately strong ; right valve with 3 cardinals, the anterior thin, 

 the others strong and grooved ; left valve with the posterior cardinal 

 slender, the 2 anterior teeth stronger and grooved. Ligament strong, 

 moderately long. Adductor-scars unequal, the anterior scar oval, 

 deep, the posterior broadly pyriform, less deep. Pallial sinus rather 

 short, triangular, narrowly rounded in front. 



Length, 38 mm. ; height, 32 mm. ; diameter, 20 mm. (type). 

 Length, 46 mm. ; height, 36 mm. ; diameter, 24 mm. 



Type in the Mus. Hist. Nat., Paris. 



Hob. Throughout New Zealand, but not common. 



Maori. Tuangi (teste Captain Bollons). 



Genus 4. VENERUPIS, Lamarck, 1818. 



I'l-uertipis, Lamarck, A.s.V., v, 1818, 506. Type: V. ims, L. Pullastra, 

 Sowerby, Gen. Shells, 1826. Rupellaria, H. and A. Adams, 1857 ; not of 

 Fleuriau, 1802. Irus, Herrmansen, 1847 ; not of Oken, 1815. 



Animal having long siphons, with papillose orifices, united for 

 about half their length ; foot grooved and byssiferous. 



The valves are moderately elongate and subquadrate. The 

 sculpture is radial, with prominent rather distant concentric lamel- 

 lation. There is no lunule ; and an area bounded by a keel, in the 

 left valve only, represents what may be called the escutcheon. 

 The ligament is exposed ; the pallial sinus short, ascending, free and 

 blunt in front ; the internal margins are smooth in the type. The 

 nepionic shell is polished and coloured, the adult dull and rude. 

 Hinge with 3 cardinals in each valve ; the anterior right and posterior 

 left cardinals are entire and slender, the others broad and deeply 

 bifid. (Dall.) 



The species of the group are nestlers in rock-cavities, by reason of 

 which they are frequently deformed and abnormal. 



Distribution. Seas of Europe, Indian Ocean, Philippines, Cali- 

 fornia, Australasia. 



Fossil. Secondary and Tertiary. 



KEY TO SPECIES. 



A. Shell with very distinct radial striation ; margins crenate ; a lunule 



present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . elegans. 



B. Shell with faint radial striation. 



a. No escutcheon ; concentric lamellae not anastomosing . . reflexa. 



b. A narrow deep escutcheon on left valve ; concentric lamella- 



anastomosing more or less . . . . . . . . siliqua. 



1. Venerupis elegans, Deshaye.s, 1854. Plate 62, figs. 6, a. 



Venerupis deyans, Desh., P.Z.S., 1853 (1854), 5, pi. 18, f. 2 ; Crit. List, 46 ; 

 Ereb. & Ter., 6, pi. 2, f. 6 ; Hutton, J. de Conch., xxvi, 50 ; M.N.Z.M., 

 152 ; P.L.S. N.S.W., ix, 524 ; Index, 90. 



Shell rather small, elongated, transverse, narrow, inequilateral, 

 inflato - cylindrical, distinctly radially striate and distantly con- 



