SPATITA 1347 



Subgenus Aspatiiaria Bourguignat, 1885. 



Aspatharia Bourguignat, Esp. Ouk., 1885, p. 14. 



Shell elongated rhomboid, somewhat compressed, with a 

 full, rounded posterior ridge, from which curved rows of fine, 

 broken corrugations radiate ; epidermis dark olive, wrinkled, 

 rayless ; beak sculpture not seen ; hinge with a low, slightly 

 elevated ridge in the left valve in front of the beak ; dorsal 

 scars small ; nacre lurid, bluish-green. Animal as in Spatha. 



Type, Margaritana vignoniana Bernardi. 



This may be a distinct genus, though its characters seem to 

 agree fairly well in most respects with those of Spatha. Bour- 

 guignat does not describe the muscle scars or tell anything of 

 the nacre. 



Sp.A-Tha vignoniana (Bernardi). 



Shell long rhomboid, rather solid, subcompressed or convex, 

 inequilateral; dorsal line slightly curved; base line lightly 

 curved, straight or incurved medially; anterior end rounded; 

 posterior ridge full, narrowly rounded, ending in a blunt point 

 at or near the base of the shell ; above the posterior ridge there 

 is a wide, shallow, radial depression; dorsal slope obliquely 

 truncate, sometimes its outline is a little incurved ; surface 

 closely and sharply sculptured with curved, wavy, subnodulous 

 ridges, which are divaricate on the posterior ridge ; epidermis 

 a peculiar lurid greenish-olive, quite dark ; sometimes there is 

 a sort of feeble ridge in the left valve at the beak ; muscle 

 scars shallow, the front one of the anterior ones vertical and 

 the hinder one small and horizontal ; dorsal scars one or two ; 

 nacre livid, dark, bluish or greenish, sometimes clouded with 

 salmon. 



Length ^y, height 28, diam. 15 mm. 



Length 58, height 27. diam. 15 mm. 



Gaboon, West Africa. 

 Margaritana zngnoniana Bernardi, Jl. de Conch., VH, 1858, 



p. 302, pi. X, fig. I. 

 Unio z'ignoniana REKvr;. Conch. Icon., XVL 1865, pi. xxv^ 



fig. 120. 

 Spatha :ngnoniaiia Simpson, Syn., 1900, p. 902. 



