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TERTIARY FAUNA OF FLORIDA ^ 



Asmidia Morch, Cat. Yoldi, ii., p. 38, 1853 (in synon.) ; H. and A. Adams, Gen. Rec. 



Moll., ii., p. 444, 1857 (err. typ. for Armida Gistel). 

 Cypriniadea Rovereto, 111. Moll. Tongr., Atte R. Univ. Genova, xv., p. 96, 1900; Newton, 



Journ. Conch., x., p. 196, 1902. 



The recent shell which forms the type of this genus was imperfectly known 

 to the earlier authors, confused with Veneridce, Cardia, and other groups, and 

 by many, on account of its conspicuous brownish periostracum, suspected to 

 be a fluviatile shell. Bruguiere figured it on his plates of the " Encyclopedic 

 Methodique," where it forms the first and most conspicuous figure of those 

 devoted to his genus Cyclas* The species represented on these two plates are 

 as follows, according to Lamarck and Bory St. Vincent, who edited them : 

 plate ccci., fig. i, Venus islandica (L.) Gmelin; fig. 2, (Corbicula) fuscata 

 Lamarck, var. ; fig. 3, (Cyrena) cyranopsis Valenciennes; plate cccii., fig. i, 

 (Corbicula) sp. ; fig. 2, (Corbicula) fuscata Lamarck, typical ; fig. 3, (Astarte) 

 borealis Gmelin ; fig. 4, (Cyrena) zeylanica Lamarck ; fig. 5, (Sphcerium) rivi- 

 cola Lamarck; fig. 6, (Sphcerium) calyculata Draparnaud. I have put in 

 parentheses the modern current generic names belonging to the species. Out 

 of this series the type of Cyclas s. s. must be selected. Now the genus Spha- 

 rium, including the last two species, had been proposed twenty years before by 

 Scopoli, hence these are not available for the purpose, and Lamarck's use in 

 1799 of a species not included in the list could not, by the laws of nomenclature, 

 be accepted as allowable. The first writer to restrict the genus was Link, who 

 in 1807 selected Cyclas islandica, the first, largest, and most conspicuous of 

 Bruguiere's species, to represent the genus, putting the last species of Sphcerium 

 in a genus Musculium Link, which, of course, takes precedence of Calyculina 

 Clessin, 1871. The next elimination was that of Megerle von Miihlfeld, who 

 established his genus Corbicula on the second species of Bruguiere, which is, 

 according to Dillwyn, identical with Tellina iluminalis of Gmelin. The intro- 

 duction of the name Astarte by J. Sowerby in 1816 covered the single species 

 on plate cccii. ; and Lamarck, by proposing the genus Cyrena in 1818, com- 

 pleted the task of providing the species of the original list with generic names. 



The fate of the synonyms Cyprina, Crassina, Arctica; Armida, etc., seems 

 clearly fixed ; they must retire from the nomenclature in spite of the fact that 

 some of them have been widely used. The early use of Cyclas in the sense of 

 the earlier Sphcerium is to be regretted, since it is so familiar, but it in no way 

 invalidates the proper application of Bruguiere's name, according to the rules 



* Troisieme livraison, pis. ccci., cccii., published in 1798, not 1792 as generally cited. 



