173 



spathulate pallets which act as an operculum. In some species {Xylotrya, 

 Leach) the pallets are very much elongated. In the free-living species, 

 included erroneously by Lamarck in his genus Fistulana, they are short 

 and of the form of a spear-head. 



It has been lately shown by Mr. Jeffreys, assisted by Dr. Lukis, that 

 we have as many as fifteen species of Teredo indigenous to Britain ; and 

 the exotic species, of which only ten have been described, are probably 

 very much more numerous. Each species has its own peculiar tube, valves, 

 and pair of pallets, and each, apparently, its allotted length of bore.* Of 

 the British Teredines four, according to Mr. Jeffreys, inhabit fixed wood, 

 and the remainder occur in drift-wood as occasional visitants. t Among 

 the exotic species one, T. gigantea (Sepiaria arenaria, Lamarck), is of very 

 colossal dimensions, forming a tube of considerable length and thickness ; 

 and three, T. clava {Fistulana gregata, Lamarck), comiformis, and lagenula 

 ( Uperolis, Guettard), are not borers, but form free club-shaped tubes like 

 Gastrochcena. 



1. bipartita, Jeffr. 



2. bipinnata, Tart. 



3. clava, Gmel. 



4. corniformis, Lam. 



5. cucullata, Norm. 

 fi. elongata, Quatr. 

 7. excavata, Lukis. 



Species. 



8. fimbriata, Jeffr. 



9. fusticulus, id. 



10. gigantea, Linn. 



11. lagenula, Lam. 



12. malleolus, Ttirt. 



13. marina, Sellius. 



14. megotara, Haul. 



15. minima, Blain. 



16. nana, Turt. 



17. Norvegica, Speng. 



18. palmulata, Lam. 



19. pedicellata, Quatr. 



20. pennatifera, Blain. 



21. Senegalensis, id. 



lightens the tedium of his monograph, he quotes with admiration those lines of Ovid, in which 

 the poet makes unquestionable mention of the Teredo : — 



" For as the ship by hidden shipworm spoiled ; 



Or as the rock by briny wavelet mined ; 

 Or as the rusted sword by rust is soiled ; 



Or book unread the tiny moths uubind : 

 So gnawed and nibbled, without hope of rest, 

 By cares unceasing is my tortured breast." 



Sellius was the first to hold and prove that the Teredo is a mollusk, thus anticipating Adanson, 

 and showing more sagacity than Linnaeus, who long after persisted in placing the shipworm 

 alougside of the Serpula." — Forbes and Hanley, Brit. Moll. vol. i. p. 64. 



* " No artist ever applied a shell to so noble a purpose as Mr. Brunei did when the borings of 

 a Teredo revealed to him the plan of tunneling the Thames. On a visit to this distinguished 

 engineer by Professor Pictet and Dr. Brewster, he mentioned to them that the idea was sug- 

 gested to him by the tunneling of a Teredo" — Johnstone, In/rod. Conch, p. 66. 



f " The Teredines constitute a peaceful though not a social community, and they have never 

 been known to work into the tunnel of any neighbour. If they approach too near to each other, 

 and cannot find space in any direction to continue their operations, they enclose the valves or 

 anterior part of the body in a case consisting of one or more hemispheric d layers of shelly mat- 

 ter. Sellius supposed that the Teredo ate up the wood which it excavated and had no other food ; 

 and labouring under the idea that it could no longer exist after being thus voluntarily shut up, 

 he considered it to be the pink of chivalry and honour in preferring to commit suicide rather 

 than infringe on its neighbour." — Jeffreys, in Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., August, 1860. 



