BCAPHULA. 129 



Genus SCAPHULA. 



Scaphula, Benson, P. Z. S. 1834, p. 91; Zool. Journ. v, 1835, 

 p. 464 ; A. M. N. H. ser. 2, xvii, 1856, p. 128. 



TYPE, Scaphula celooe, Benson ; River Jumna, near Bundelkund. 



Range. Rivers of India and Burma. 



The original description of the genus is as follows : 



" The form of the shell, its lozenge-shaped ligamental scar, and 

 the position and order of its teeth shew its place to be among the 

 Arcacece ; while the oblique production of the teeth on the posterior 

 side down the inner surface of the cardinal lamina, the separation 

 of the teeth into two sets by the interposition of an edentate 

 portion of the cardinal lamina, and the freedom of the shell from 

 ribs, with the exception of the ridges which occur at the angle 

 of the shell, will suffice to distinguish our shell from the genus 

 Area, which will still comprehend marine shells only." 



In 1856 in the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History/ 

 p. 128, Benson gives an amended description of the above as 

 follows: "Testa aequivalvis, valde inaBquilateralis, subtrapezi- 

 formis, carina valida ab umbonibus distantibus usque ad marginem 

 posteriorem et basalem extendente ; cardo rectilihearis, medio 

 tenuis, ad extremitates sulcidentatas latior, dentibus anterioribus 

 4, crenulatis minutis obliquis posterioribus lamellatis, parallelibus, 

 intus oblique descendentibus, 4 ad 6, primo obliquis, demum 

 transversis, raro bifurcatis, munita ; ligamentum exterius, rhom- 

 biforme, inter umbones situm ; epidermis tenuis vel crasse 

 lamelloso-rugosa ; inusculi adductoris impressio antica unica, 

 posteriores dua3 subdistantes quorum inferior oblongo-quadrata : 

 pallii impressio integra." 



"The genus is at once distinguished from its nearest allies, 

 Area and Cucull&a, by the hinge being linear and edentate in the 

 middle and for the greatest part of its length, and by the form 

 and position of the teeth at the ext^mities ; the laminar posterior 

 ones, which are sometimes ramose, running obsoletely and 

 obliquely into the interior of the shell. The two distinct ad- 

 ductor muscular impressions, and the squareness of the lower one 

 on the posterior side in both species, are peculiar features sup- 

 porting the claims of the type to generic distinction." 

 The animal is unknown. 



261. Scaphula celox, Benson. 



Scaphula celox, Benson, J. A. S. B. v, 1836, p. 750 (as figured in 

 Glean. Science, Calcutta), i, pi. 7, figs. 2, 3 ; A. M. N. H. xvii, 

 1856, p. 129 ; Blanford, J. A. S. B. xxxvi, pt. 2, pi. 14, figs. 14, 

 15 ; H. & T., C. I., 1876, p. 47, pi. 116, figs. 8, 9 j Crosse & 

 P. Fischer, J. Conchyliol., Paris, xxiv, p. 339. 



Area scaphula, Benson, P. Fischer, Man. Conch., p. 976. 



