smaller micro-crustacea suspended in the inhalent current 

 whicli is continually passing between the mantle lobes. This 

 current is set up by the cilia on the gills and palps, the 

 water is filtered by means of the gills, and the microscopic 

 matter is entangled in mucus and conducted to the mouth. 



The foot is a great mucus-secreting organ, and the 

 labial palps and lips direct the food current to the mouth 

 opening. 



When dredging on Pecteu grounds, empty shells 

 are frequently dredged up, which are neither old nor have 

 the appearance of having been unoccupied for long. It is 

 probable that starfish, together with the whelk, are 

 accountable for some of these empty shells. A large dog 

 whelk in Port Erin aquarium had killed and partially 

 eaten a P. maximus by getting the anterior end of its 

 shell between the separated valves of Pecten, and then 

 attacking the adductor muscle with its proboscis. 



Parasites are very scarce, no internal ones having 

 been met with in any of the specimens sectioned. 

 Lichomolgus maximus (8) is, however, an interesting 

 ectoparasitic copepod whicli may be obtained by washing 

 in sea water the gills and mantle to which it adheres. It 

 is of an orange colour, very like that of the gills, and, so 

 far, has only been found in F. maximus, from which the 

 specific name is taken. 



Very often the shells of Pecten are bored through by 

 Cliane celata (a boring sponge). This ramifies extensively 

 between the outer and inner layers of the shell, and gives 

 off short shoots which pass outwards to the external and 

 internal surfaces of the valves. At the points where 

 these tubes perforate the internal layer of the shell, the 

 mantle secretes calcareous nodules of a dark grey or black 

 colour. 



The outer surface of the upper valve forms, as one 



