VENERUPIS. 155 



phreys in Cork Harbour. Both shells are now in the 

 almost perfect British collection of our friend, Mr. Jeffreys 

 of Swansea. The only other recorded specimen was the 

 original one obtained by Mr. Laskey from the Frith of 

 Forth, near Dunbar, and described and figured by Col. 

 Montagu. It is very donbtful, however, whether we can 

 regard the Scottish specimen as indigenous, and not 

 improbable, that it was taken out of ballast. The At- 

 lantic coasts of France and Spain, and the Western 

 Mediterranean are the regions where this mollusk is 

 most at home. 



VENERUPIS, Lamarck, 



Shell oblong, somewhat compressed, equivalve, inequi- 

 lateral. Hinge, with two cardinal teeth in one valve and 

 three in the other, or with three cardinal teeth in both 

 valves, the central one more or less bifid. Ligament oblong, 

 external. Palleal impression with a well-marked oblong 

 sinus. 



Animal oblong, thick, mantle closed in front for the 

 passage of a compressed and lanceolate foot. Siphons 

 united for about half their lengths, their orifice fringed 

 with a double series of cirrhi, the longer ones pectinated. 



This genus and the last approach very closely, and both 

 present features which indicate an affinity with the Venerida, 

 though the characters of the mantle, and the manners of 

 the sj)ecies induce us rather to associate them with the 

 family in which we have placed them here. Possibly, 

 when their exotic allies have been more carefully studied, 

 and the characters of their animal inhabitants better known, 

 one or other genus may form the type of a family apart 

 from the Gastrocheenidce. 



