348 MANUAL OF THE MOLLUSCA. 



as a distinct group ; not indeed of equal value "with tte Gastero- 

 poda, but with, one of its orders. 



This group, the lowest of the univalve or encephalous orders, 

 makes no approach, towards the bivalves or acephala. Forskah.1 

 and Lamarck indeed compared Hyalcea with Terebratula ; but 

 they made the ventral plate of one answer to the dorsal valve of 

 the other, and the anterior cephalic orifice of the pteropodous 

 shell correspond with th.e posterior, byssal foramen of the 

 bivalve ! 



Section A. — Thecosomata, BL* 



Animal fiu-nished with an external shell; head indistinct; 

 foot and tentacles rudimentary, combined with the fins ; mouth 

 situated in a cavity formed by the union of the locomotive 

 organs ; respiratory organ contained within a mantle cavity. 



Family I. — Hyaleid^. 



Shell straight or curved, globular or needle-shaped, sym- 

 metrical. 



Animal with two large fins, attached by a columellar muscle 

 passing from the apex of the shell to the base of the fins; body 

 enclosed in a mantle ; gill represented by a transversely plaited 

 and ciliated surface, within the mantle cavity, on the ventral 

 side ; lingual teeth (of Hyalea) 1.1.1, each with a strong recurved 

 hook. 



Hyalea, Lamarck 



Etymology, JiyaUos, glassy. 

 Synonym, Cavolina, Gioeni, not Brug. 

 Ttjpe, H. tridentata, Fig. 143. PI. XIY., Fig. 32. 

 Shell globular, translucent ; dorsal plate lather flat, produced 

 into a hood; aperture contracted, with a slit on each side; 



posterior extremity tridentate. In 

 H. trispinosa [Diacria, Gray) the 

 lateral slits open into the cervical 

 aperture. 



Animal with long appendages to the 

 mantle, passing through the lateral 

 slits of the shell ; tentacles indistinct ; 

 fins united by a semicircular ventral 

 lobe, the equivalent of the posterior 

 Fig. 143. H. tridentata. element of the foot. 

 Distribution, 19 species. Atlantic, Mediterranean, Indiao 

 Ocean. 

 Fossil, 5 species. Miocene — . Sicily, Turin, Dax. 



* Theke, a case, soma, a body j several of the genera have no sheila. 



