AST ARTE. 117 



Oeniis ASTARTE, Sowerby. 1816. 



Shell rounded, sub-equipartite, compressed, thick ; hinge witli 

 two strong, diverging, cardinal teeth on one valv'e, and two very 

 unequal ones on the other, or only one large one ; pallial impression 

 simple ; ligament exterior. 



Astarte castanea. 



Fig. 44. 



Shell sub-orbicular, with prominent and nearly central beaks; lunule deeply 

 excavated ; surfiice very slightly waved, covered with a chestnut-brown epider- 

 mis; margin crenulated witliin. 



Vemis castanea. Say, Jonrn. Acad. Nat. Sc. ii. 27.3 (Aug 1822). 



Astarte castanea, Say, Amer. Condi, pi. 1. — Totten, Silliman's Journ. xxviii. fig. 2. — 



De Kay, Nat. Hist. New York, 220, pi. 28, fig. 280. — Piiilippi, Abbild. t. .5, fig. 



2. — Conrad, Amor. Mar. Conch, t. 17, fig. 45. — Hanley, Hoc. Sh. Suppl. t 9, 



fig. 27. — Philippi, Abbild. ii. 57 (Astarte), t. 1, fig. 2. — Forbes and Haxl. Br. 



Moll. i. 470. —Gray, Cat. Br. Mas. (Br. Moll.) 162. 

 Crassina castanea. Lam. An. sans Vert. 2d cd. vi. 258. — Hanley, Recent Shells, i. 88. 

 Venus sulcata, Montagu, Test. Brit. L'Jl. — Maton and Rackett, Lin. Trans, viii. 81, 



t. 2, fig. 2. 

 Crassina sulcata, Brown, 111. Conch. 96, t. 38, fig. 10. 



Shell thick and ponderous, sub-orbicular, or sub-triangular, the 

 beaks nearly central, and much elevated, generally eroded ; the 

 areola in front of the beaks is ovate-lanceolate, 

 short, broad, deeply excavated, very smooth, and ^'°' * ' 



darker colored ; posterior slope nearly straight, a vfl^ 



with a long, narrow, lanceolate depression ; basal ^^^ ^Ik 

 margin regularly rounded, thick ; surface very ^^^K-" mmk 

 slightly undulated at the stages of growth, cov- ^^^— ':V^W 

 ered with a thick, chestnut-colored epidermis, ^^^^^^^^ 

 wrinkled and stained with black posteriorly, with ^. castanea. 



alternately paler and darker zones ; ligament small 

 and feeble. Hinge very strong, the hinge-margin very broad, bear- 

 ing on the right valve one stout tooth, with a pit on each side ; on 

 the left valve two teeth somewhat diverging, with a deep pit between 

 them for the reception of the opposite tooth ; cavity small ; muscu- 

 lar impressions deep, elongated, united liy a direct pallial impres- 

 sion ; margin in adult shells regularly crenulated. Length, one 

 inch ; height, one inch ; breadth, eleven twentieths of an inch. 



