Oi 



KELLIA, Turton. 



Gen. Char. An equivalved, more or less trans- 

 verse, slender bivalve; valves close at the sides; 

 hinge with sometimes two central teeth and 

 one lateral tooth in the left valve, sometimes 

 only one central and no lateral tooth ; ligament 

 internal, linear, attached to a pit along and 

 within the posterior edge of the hinge-plate ; 

 muscular impressions two, nearly orbicular ; 

 impression of the mantle obscure, entire? 



-Uii. Turton established this genus and gave the charac- 

 ters from a small recent British shell, discovered by Mon- 

 tague, who called it Mya stiborbicularis. The genus is 

 named in commemoration of Mr. J. M. O' Kelly of Dub- 

 lin. Dr. Turton's definition is, — 



" Shell somewhat globular, equivalved, closed ; hinge 

 with two approximate teeth and a remote lateral tooth in 

 one valve, and a concave tooth and a remote lateral one in 

 the other ; ligament internal." 



It has been necessary to alter this description that it may 

 include several species so nearly related that Mr. S. V. 

 Wood has arranged them together, and also to distinguish 

 it from Erycina, Lam., which has a sinus in the impression 

 of the mantle, and has a pit for the ligament between, not 

 behind, the two cardinal teeth ; nevertheless several fossil 

 species of Lamarck's as well as of Deshayes' Erycina be- 

 long probably to Kellia. 



The position of the surface or pit for the attachment of 

 the ligament also distinguishes Kellia from Mesodesma of 

 Deshayes, which is Erycina of G. B. Sowerby, but not of 

 Lamarck. 



