XIV. NOTES ON LAMELLIBRANCHS IN 

 THE INDIAN MUSEUM. 



By B. Prashad, D.Sc, Offg. Superintendent, Zoological Survey of 



India. 



(Plate XV.) 



3. The Genus Villorita Griffith and Pidgeon 

 ( = Velorita , Gray) . 



The oenns Villorita, Griffith and Pidgeon, hitherto known 

 from shell-characters only, has been the subject of interesting 

 controversy. Some of the authorities did not consider it distinct 

 from the genus Cvrcna, Lamarck, but others, owing to the differ- 

 ences in the shape of the shell and the hinge-teeth in the two 

 genera, separated Villorita as a distinct genus. The soft parts now 

 described uphold this latter view. 



Iredide' recently has rightly questioned the propriety of the 

 name Velorita , Gray, by which name the genu'< was hitherto known 

 in literature. He considers that it should be replaced by Griffith 

 and Pidgeon's name Villorita, which was by all subsequent authors 

 regarded as only a misprint for Gray's Velorita. A short review 

 of the whole question will not be out of place here. The type- 

 species of the genus was described by Gray* as Cyrena cypriiioides 

 in 1825, and figured by Wood' as Venus cyprinoidcs three ye-ATS 

 later. Griffith and Pidgeon* in 1833 published a figure of Gray's 

 type-specimen under the name Villorita cyprinoides with the 

 following meagre description in the alphabetical list of figures 

 "Villorita cyprinoides, Gray [Cyrena cyprinoides, Wood). Olive 

 green." Iredale assumes from this and the following note in 

 Griffith and Pidgeon's preface " Most of the inedited shells in this 

 work are from the collection in the British Museitm" that Gray 

 had, prior to 1833, probably labelled his specimens as Villorita 

 cvprinoides, though in his later work^ he published the name as 

 Velorita. Whatever may have been the sequence of events, there 

 is no doubt that Griffith and Pidgeon were the first authors to 

 introduce the name Villorita in literature, and their name, prob- 



I Iredale, Proc. Malacol. Soc. London XI, p. 178 (1914); see also ibid., X, 



pp. 294—309 (1913). 



''■ Gray, Ann. Philosophy, n.s.. IX, p. 136 (1825). 



s Wood, Index Test. Supplement, pi. ii. fig. 14 (1828,1. 



* Griffith's Animal Kingdom, Xll, pi. xxxi, fig. 5 (1834), the date on the 

 plate is 1833. 



6 Gray, Syn, Brit. Mus., p. 149 1 184(1) and ;*((/., p. 78 (1842). 



