166 TELLINIDA. 
Animal with the mantle widely open in front, its margins 
fringed ; foot tongue-shaped, compressed; siphons separate, 
usually - very long “and slender; palpi large, triangular; gills 
united posteriorly, unequal, the outer pair sometimes directed 
dorsally. 
The Tellens are found in all seas, chiefly in the littoral and~ 
laminarian zones; they frequent sandy bottoms, or sandy mud, 
burying beneath the surface; a few species inhabit estuaries and 
rivers. Their valves are often richly colored and ornamented 
with finely sculptured lines. 
Supramity TELLININZ. 
Shell oval or wide, sometimes slightly gaping posteriorly ; 
ligament external, prominent. Siphons elongated. 
Asapuis, Modeer, 1793. 
Syn.—Capsula, Schum., 1817. Capsa (part), Brug. 
Sis), 
Sanguinolaria, Lam., 1818, not 1801. Pliorhytis, Conrad. 
Distr.—5 sp. West Indies, Red Sea, India, China, Australia. 
Fossil. HEocene—; United States, Europe. A. deflorata, Linn. 
(cxi, 55). 
Shell oblong, ventricose, slightly gaping at each end ; radiately 
striated ; cardinal teeth 2 in each valve, one of them bifid ; liga- 
ment external, large, prominent ; siphonal inflection short. 
Animal like Psammobia ; foot moderate ; gills deeply plaited, 
attenuated in front, outer small, dorsal border wide, fixed ; 
siphons moderate. 
Lige 
Gari, Schumacher, 1817. 
Syn.—Psammobia, Lam., 1818. Sanguinolaria, Roissy, 1805. 
Lutricola (partim), Blainy., 1824. Psammosolen, Bronn, 1831. 
Distr.—8v0 sp. Norway, Britain, India, New Zealand, Pacific ; 
littoral—coralline zone, 100 fathoms. G. gard is eaten in India. 
Fossil, 55 sp. Cretaceous—; United States, Europe. G. insignis, 
Desh. (cxi, 46). G. vespertina, Chemn. (exi, 68 . 
Shell transverse, oval-oblong, flat, equivalve, subequilateral, 
concentrically plicate, a little gaping on each side and covered 
by a thin epidermis ; hinge narrow, with two small cardinal teeth, 
sometimes bifid, in each valve ; beaks small; ligament long and 
prominent ; margins simple ; muscular impressions rather large, 
equally distant from the hinge, the anterior oblong, the posterior 
rounded; pallial impression distant from the margin, with a 
narrow, profound sinus. 
Animal: mantle open, fringed; siphons very long, slender, 
nearly equal, longitudinally ciliated, orifices with 6-8 cirri; foot 
lurge, tongue-shaped; palpi long, tapering; gills unequal, recum- 
bent, few-plaited. 
