170 MOLLUSCA FROM THE CRAG. 



ERYCINELLA, Conrad? 1845. 

 EEYCINA (sp.) Desk., 1825. 



GOODALLIA. S. Wood. 



Gen. Char. Shell trigonal, equivalve, inequilateral, thick ? strong ? and closed. 

 Hinge composed of two teeth in each valve, and a triangular space between them. 

 Lateral teeth obscure. Ligament internal. Palleal impression without a sinus. 



ANIMAL UNKNOWN. 



In 1822 Dr. Turton proposed a Genus of Bivalves under the name of Goodattia, 

 with a diagnosis almost in the above words, having an internal ligament. The shell 

 constituting the type of his genus, and, indeed, the only one that it contained, is now 

 well known to be a true Astarte, and has a ligament placed externally upon a fulcrum ; 

 his name, therefore, has lost its claim to be retained. 



The figure of a small shell is given by Conrad in his ' Fossils of the Medial 

 Tertiaries of the United States,' corresponding apparently with the above characters, 

 and described under the name of Erycinella ovalis, but without a generic diagnosis, 

 and I have adopted it here upon the presumption that he has used it as one that had 

 been fairly established. 



The name was no doubt intended as a diminutive of Erycina, a genus in which a 

 shell resembling E. ovalis has been placed by Deshayes, (' Coq. Foss. des Env. de Par.,' 

 t. i, pi. vi, figs. 23 5.) The genus Erycina, as proposed by Lamarck, had included in 

 it by himself an assemblage of heterogeneous materials, making it almost impossible 

 to determine the species intended as the type, in consequence of which it has been 

 pretty generally rejected, although retained by a few continental Conchologists for a 

 group of shells closely related to Tellina, possessing elongated siphons, a genus to which 

 our present species has no relationship, and the name Erycinella is consequently very 

 inappropriate, our shell being evidently connected with Astarte* Preserving, there- 

 fore, its close affinity, and retaining it still in the family of the Goddess of Beauty, it 

 has, since its removal from Goodallia, remained in my Cabinet under the MS. name of 

 Astartetta, a name it was intended to have proposed, and to which I would now lay 

 claim, provided no regular diagnosis has previously been given to the one Mr. Conrad 

 has employed. 



* There is also a general resemblance, and probably near relationship, with Cardita, as one small 

 species of that Genus has the exterior ornamented with concentric instead of radiating ridges, and with a 

 crenulated margin, but the hinge furniture and position of the ligament are quite different. 



