ASTARTE. 311 



A. More or less ribbed. 

 1. Astarte sulcata*, Da Costa. 



Pectunculus costatus, Da Costa, Brit, Conch, p. 192. A. sulcata, P. & H. 

 i. p. 452, pi. xxx. f. 5, 6 (as A. Banmoniensis), pi. cxxxiii. f. 4 (as A. 

 sulcata, var.), and (animal) pi. M. f. 5. 



Body more or less tinged with fleshcolour : mantle plain- 

 edged, and girt with a narrow belt of orange : tubes scarcely 

 separated from each other ; orifices bordered with orange, like 

 the mantle : gills of a pale yellowish hue : palps rather large, 

 of a lanceolate-triangular shape, strongly striated external!)-, 

 and of a pale tawny colour : foot not large in proportion to the 

 shell, of a pale flesh or fawncolour. [This description has 

 been taken from the ' British Mollusca.' I suspect that the 

 animal had been killed with hot water before it was examined. 

 Being so common, I omitted to make any note of it ; but my 

 recollection of the colour and proportions does not agree with 

 the above.] 



Shell obtusely triangular, with an oblique outline, some- 

 what compressed, thick, of a dull hue : sculpture, 2A-AS) strong 

 and angular ribs, which are much more crowded towards the 

 beaks and gradually vanish or are wholly wanting on the 

 posterior side ; the surface is also covered with intermediate 

 concentric but irregular striae : colour milk-white beneath the 

 epidermis, which is chestnut or of various shades of brown, 

 and marked with exquisitely minute and innumerable hair- 

 like, slightly undulating, and punctured transverse striae : 

 margins curved in front and on the anterior side, and slightly 

 truncate on the posterior side : beaks excentric, considerably 

 recurved towards the anterior side : lunule and corselet deep, 

 well defined, and smooth : ligament short, yellowish or horn- 

 colour, enclosed within the dorsal line, and partly contained in 

 a groove excavated out of the hinge-plate : liinge-line obtusely 

 triangular : hinge-plate thick and broad, especially in the 

 middle, occupying about one-third of the circumference : teeth, 

 in the right valve three cardinals, the outermost and posterior of 

 which is very indistinct and laminar, and the other two are 

 much larger, obliquely triangular, and diverge outwards, leav- 

 ing a deep and triangular cavity between them for the recep- 

 tion of the middle tooth of the left valve ; there is also an 

 obscure lateral on each side ; the left valve has likewise three 



* Furrowed. 



