182 VENERIDA. 
SuspraMity TAPHSINA. 
Shell oblong, transverse ; cardinal teeth compressed; laterals, 
when present, simple. Siphons separate; foot lanceolate, bys- 
siferous. 
Tapes, Muhlfeldt. 
Etym.— Tapes, tapestry. 
Syn.—Omalia, Ryck., 1856. Parembola, Rimer. 
Distr.—i8 sp. Norway, Britain, Black Sea, Senegal, Brazil, 
India, China, New Zealand ; low-water—100 fathoms.—BEEcHY. 
Fossil, 6 sp. Cretaceous—; Britain, France, Belgium, Italy. 7. 
litterata, Linn. (cxiv, 35). 7. geographica, Chemn. (cxiv, 36). 
Shell oblong, umbones anterior, margins smooth; teeth three 
in each valve, more or less bifid ; pallial sinus deep, "rounded. 
Animal spinning a byssus ; foot thick, lanceolate, grooved : 
mantle plain or finely fringed; freely open in front; siphons 
moderate, separate half-way or throughout, orifices fringed, and 
cirri simple, branchial ramose ; palpi ‘long, tri angular. 
The animal is eaten on the southern European coasts; it buries 
in the sand at low-water, or hides in the crevices of rocks, and 
roots of sea-weed. 
AMYGDALA, Rimer. (Cuneus, Dacosta.) Radiately striate or 
decussate. 7. decussata, Linn. 
myrsus, H. and A. Ad., 1858. (Metis, Ad., 1857.) Concen- 
trically wrinkled. 7. corrugata, Desh. 
PARATAPES, Stolicz., 1870. (Textrix, Rémer, not Blachwall or 
Sundewal, 1833, — Arachnoidea.) Shell much elongated, com- 
pressed, outer surface smooth. 7” textrix, Chemn. 
HEMITAPES, Riimer. Shell inflated, solid, ventricose, especially 
at the umbones, which are incurved, more or less narrower pos- 
teriorly ; outer surface smooth. 7. pinguis, Chemn. 
PULLASTRA, Sowb. 1827. 
Distr.—Kastern seas. P. Malabarica, Chemn. (cxiv, 37). 
Shell transverse, oblong, oval and sometimes subtrigonal ; 
hinge composed of ‘three contiguous cardinal teeth, more or less 
divergent, sometimes bifid or simply channeled at the summit ; 
beaks. direct ed forward; margins simple; anterior muscular 
impression oval, posterior larger and rounded ; pallial impression 
rather distant from the margin, with an oval, ’ shallow sinus. 
Animal with membranous, transparent mantle, the margins 
plain; siphons partly separate, unequal, the extremities with 
small tentacles, branchial siphon largest and longest; foot 
elongated, compressed, triangular, sometimes  byssiferous ; 
branchis unequal, united behind the foot and around the anal 
siphon; mouth oval, small. 
