190 NATURAL HISTOKY. 



Among the lost specimens are some " showing the manner m 

 which the animal closes the tube with transverse septa at certain 

 periods of growth" and " the pallets which are attached to the base 

 of the tube," 



Henceforth the right of this mud or sand borer to a place in the 

 genus Teredo and family Pholadida^ appears to have been always 

 recognised. How or where he got the name of Kuphus, or Uuphus, 

 or Cyphus, for there seems to be some uncertainty in regard to its 

 spelling, by which he is known to Gutteard, I cannot say. But 

 Sowerby in the "Thesaurus Conchyliorum " thus describes two species, 

 giganteus and clausus, of a genus ' Kuphus,' Gutteard, synonym, 

 4 FurcelW, Oken : — "The tube of this sand-burrowing mollusc attains 

 the length of some feet, and has been known as the gigantic septaria 

 of Lamarck. The small end which protrudes from the surface of the 

 sand is divided by a central septum, and sometimes forms a double 

 separated tube. The pallets of the larger species only are known ; 

 they are spathulate and deltoid. No valves have been found of either 

 species."* The only other known specimens of Kuphus in England 

 beside the two I have just mentioned in the College of Surgeons are 

 those in the British Museum. In the family Pholadidee, next to genus 

 Teredo is a specimen marked " Cuphus (Gutteard)." Under it is written 

 * ' Furcella arenaria (Gutteard sp.)«" It is a piece of tube 15 inches long, 

 with a closed and rounded end showing a visible suture. By it are two 

 pallets. There is nothing to show where any of these specimens was 

 found, and no one at tha Museum seemed to know. Besides these, in 

 another show-case are two very long and big pieces of tube, wanting 

 the round ends, but shoeing well the longitudinal division into two at 

 the smaller end. One of them is labelled " Singapore." The other, 

 3 feet 9 inches long, has no history ; but Mr. Smith, the Curator, 

 believed both pieces were obtained from Mr. Charlesworth, a well- 

 known Geologist. 



Woodward in 1854, writing of Teredo, after describing T.navalis and 

 corniformis, continues : — " The tube of the Giant Teredo (T. armaria, 

 Rumph., Furcella, Lamarck) is often a yard long and 2 inches in its 

 greatest diameter. When broken across, it exhibits a radiating pris- 

 matic structure. The siphonal end is divided lengthwise, and some- 

 times prolonged into two diverging tubes." In 1885, Win. Clark 

 wrote an account of Teredo, in which he suggested that certain points 



* I have never found any pallets. If they do not exist, it may be because the Byculla 

 Flat specimens belong to the smaller species, which to judge from the size of those found 

 would appear to be the case. 



