372 Zoological Society, 



The delineations of these last three species will appear in the 

 ' British Marine Conchology/ The shells are from the cabinet of 

 W. Metcalfe, Esq., and were procured by him on one of the islets 

 near the coast of Guernsey. 



February 27. — Professor Owen in the Chair. 



Mr. Lovell Reeve described seven new species of Glauconome, a 

 genus of fluvio-marine Mollusks of the family Solenacea. 



The genus Glauconome was introduced some years since by Mr. J. 

 E. Gray in his • Spicilegia Zoologica,' with the description of a single 

 species collected by John Reeves, Esq. in China. Another species 

 appears to have been described by the great author of the ' Systema 

 Naturae' under the title of Solen virens, the original examples of 

 which are still preserved in the collection of the Linnaean Society ; 

 and I have now the pleasure of exhibiting seven new species, which 

 by their characters and habits add materially to the generic import- 

 ance of the group. 



The Glauconomes are of a light semi-perlaceous structure, covered 

 with a thin light green horny epidermis, which in some species is 

 very peculiarly wrinkled or shrivelled, and inflected over the margin, 

 and their hinge is composed of three irregular forked teeth in each 

 valve, some of which are generally bifid. They live in brackish 

 water (in the mud) in the mouths of rivers at their confluence with 

 the sea, and have only been found as yet in the Eastern hemisphere. 

 Out of nine species with which we are now acquainted, the localities 

 of eight are known to be as follows : one inhabits the rivers of China ; 

 one the Ganges and probably other rivers of India ; three inhabit 

 certain rivers running into the bay of Manila ; and three, certain 

 small rivers in the islands of Zebu, Negros and Luzon, of the Phi- 

 lippines ; the last six having been collected in those particular locali- 

 ties by H. Cuming, Esq. 



The place selected by Mr. Gray for the genus Glauconome in the 

 natural system was in his family of the Veneridce ; it appears to me, 

 however, to exhibit a much stronger affinity with the Solenacea ; in 

 my arrangement in the ' Conchologia Systematica/ I referred it to 

 that family, and I am happy to say that the propriety of this re- 

 moval has been subsequently confirmed. 



The following are descriptions of the seven new species : — 



1. Glauconome rugosa. Glauc. testd elongato-oblongd, rugosd, 

 circiter umbones plus minusve erosd, lateribus rotundatis ; epider- 

 mide peculiariter corrugatd, latere postico subobsolete angulato. 



Conch. Icon. pi. 1. f. 4. a and b. 



Hab. The mouths of rivers running into the bay of Manila. 



This species, which is by far the largest of the genus, presents a 

 very peculiar arrangement of the epidermis. Over about one-third 

 of the length of the shell from the posterior extremity, the epidermis 

 lies in narrow ridges parallel with the lines of growth ; these ridges are 

 then suddenly directed towards the umbones, and become dispersed 

 over the remaining portion of the shell in the form of shrivelled 

 wrinkles scattered in the contrary direction. 



