io8 



LAMELUBRANCHIATA. 



Distribution. On the European side Astarte sidcata is distributed from the western part of 

 the Mnrman Coast (Knipowitsch) to the Mediterranean and west coast of North Africa; it goes 

 down into the Kattegat Over the Fferoes it reaches to the southern and western coasts of Iceland 

 and to Denmark Strait off the south-eastern Greenland. The bathymetric distribution is 5 — ca. 1000 fm. 



Astarte elliptica Brown. 

 PI. IV, figs. 4 a-g. 



} Venus coiiiprcssa Linne, Mantissa Plantarum Altera, 1771, Regni Animalis App., p. 546. — Crassina 

 elliptica Brown, 111. Conchol. Great Britain and Ireland, 1827, PI- 18, fig. 3; 111. Rec. Con- 

 chol. Great Brit, and Ireland, 1844, p. 96, PI. 38, fig. 3. — Astarte compressa Sars, Moll. Reg. 

 Arct. Norv., 1878, p. 53')- 



Astarte semisnlcata Moller, Index Moll. Groenl., 1842, p. 19. — Astarte compressa Morch, Rink's 

 Gronland, 1857, p. 91; Vidensk. Medd. Naturh. Foren. 1867, p. 95; ibid. 1868, p. 222; Arctic 

 Manual, 1875, p. 131; Rink's Dan. Greenland, 1877, p. 441; Posselt, Medd. om Gronland, 

 XIX, 1895, p. 72, PI. I, figs. 5—7 (var. dcpressa Poss.); ibid. XXIII, 1898, p. 66; Jensen, 

 ibid., XXIX, 1909, p. 339. 



The "Ingolf" has taken this species at: 



St. 86. W. of Iceland 76 fm. 12 valves of young (mostly quite young) 



specimens. 



87. - - — no - 5 valves of young .specimens. 



- 113. S. of Jan Mayen 1309 - 2 valves, 



- 104. N. W. of Iceland 957 - i valve of a young specimen. 



West Greenland. 



Here the species occurs commonly from the southernmost parts up to Melville Bay, on mud, 

 clay, shell and stone ground. The depths noted for living .specimens lie between 10 and 235 fm.-). 

 The ma.ximum length amounts to 36™"'. 



East Greenland. 



A. elliptica has been taken b\- Danish Expeditions at Angmagssalik, Cape Dalton, in Scoresby 

 Sound and Forsblads Fjord, (3) 10— 30(50) fm., on mud, clay and stony ground, as also by the Germania 

 Expedition at northern East Greenland (Mobius, as A. sulcata). The maximum length amounts 

 to 30""". 



[Jan Mayen.] 



Here, curiously enough, the species has not been met with. Posselt (I.e. 1898, p. 67) records 

 it from Jan Mayen and Copenhagen Museum as the authority or source, but this is due to some mis- 

 take, as our Museum possesses no specimen of A. elliptica from this island. 



') For the remaining synonyms cf. Kobelt: Prodr. Moll. Test. Mar. Europ. 188S, p. 392. 



=) A living, adult specimen from this considerable depth has been taken at 66°49' N. L., 56°28' W. L. 



