164 ARC AD j:. 



This shell, known to me as a fossil only, proves to be living a1}mi- 

 dantly in more northern seas, and has been described in Europe 

 under the specific name buccata. It varies considerably in its pro- 

 portions, so that Moller has designated two varieties, viz., — var, 

 hrevis: ovate, ventricose, lower margin vStrongiy arcuate ; var. Icevior : 

 moderately ventricose, greenish yellow, rather smooth. It is more 

 ventricose, less elongated and more finely sulcated than L. pernuhi. 



Leda minuta. 



Shell pear-shaped, beaks tumid, rostrum very short, scarcely upturned, and 

 squarely truncate, epidermis dusky. 



Area minuta, Fabr. Fauna Gr. 414. — Gsiel. 3309. 



Area minuta Grrenlandica, Chemn. Conch, x. 351, figs. 1657, 1658. 



Nuciila purva, Sowerby, Conch. 111. No. 12, fig. 7. — Eeeve, Couch. Syst. pi. 85, fig. 7, 



— Hanley, Brit. Biv. 169, pi. 19, fig. 52. 

 Nucula minuta, PiiiLippi, Zeits. f. ]\Ialac. 101 (1844). 

 Nucniaiui minuta, MoRCH, Prod. Moll. Gru?nl. 21. 

 Leda minuta, Moller, Ind. Moll. Gro-nl. 17. — Hanley, in Sowb. Tlies. ill. 114, pi. 228, 



figs. 61, 62. 



Shell oblong, pyriform, tumid, lieaks at anterior third, slightly 



elevated, obtuse, inclined inwards, anterior dorsal margin sloping so 



as to bring the somewhat acutely rounded point about midway to 



the base ; posterior dorsal margin with about the same 



slope as the front, direct and slightly upturned very 



near the tip, which is very small and squarely truncate ; 

 ventral margin full and well-rounded, with a very slight 

 emargination under the tip ; dorsal face very broad, 

 with a wide, flattened, or somewhat depressed space, des- 



L. minuta. 



titute of riblets, m front of the beaks, and a long lance- 

 olate one defined ))y a sharp ridge behind ; disks of the valves 

 very tumid, with a shallow sub-marginal channel behind ; surface 

 deeply grooved concentrically, so as to form conspicuous reflexcd 

 riblets, which terminate on reaching the dorsal areas ; epidermis 

 dusky chestnut. Interior slightly nacreous, showing the external 

 riblets, with a very distinct sharp ridge running from under the 

 beaks to the middle of the tip ; hinge with a very small, oblique lig- 

 ament pit, with about twelve teeth before and fourteen behind it. 

 Length, one half inch; height, three tenths of an inch: breadth, 

 one fourth of an inch. 



Sent to me in considerable numbers from Halifax, by Mr. Willis. 



No little confusion in the synonymy of this shell, in consequence 



