322 
MM. Koren and Danielssen on some 
been occupying ourselves for a long time with the animal in 
question, most kindly furnished us with numerous specimens, 
many of which, however, are of different species ; and we 
commenced our investigations, which are now so far advanced 
that we can give a brief description of the forms of which 
we are in possession, in the hope, however, that, in the course 
of next year, we shall be able to complete a more exhaustive 
memoir, accompanied by figures. That this abridged descrip¬ 
tion makes its appearance now is owing to the fact that we 
are urged thereto by Prof. G. O. Sars, who is just engaged 
upon a work on the Arctic mollusk-fauna, in order that he 
may be able to include in the latter the arctic species of this 
genus. 
But although we, at intervals of many years, have only 
had scanty opportunities of occupying ourselves with the 
animal under consideration, seeing that we very seldom found 
it and then only in isolated examples, it has nevertheless, 
during the long period which has elapsed since Koren first 
met with it, been detected by other naturalists, such as, espe¬ 
cially, the older and younger Sars, Dalyell, S. Loven, and 
T. Tullberg. Dalyell, in the ‘ Powers of the Creator,’ has 
given a description with figures of the animal, which he refers 
to the Vermes, and calls Vermiculus crassus A There is no 
doubt that this belongs to the molluscan genus that we 
describe below; and, so far as we can judge from Dalyell’s 
description and figures, it is probably the species to which we 
have given the name of Solenopus Dalyellii. If we had not 
feared that the generic name Vermiculus would lead to error 
and confusion, we should have retained it for our mollusk, as it 
had the priority of date ; but, in order to avoid all such dan¬ 
gers, we have adopted M. Sars’s name, both for the genus and 
for the single species which was known at that time, namely 
Solenopus nitidulus t- Sars, indeed, has not given any de¬ 
scription of the animal; so that it was not well possible for 
any one but ourselves, who were acquainted with it, to know 
what animal was meant by Solenopus nitidulus ; and it is cer¬ 
tainly only this circumstance that has caused Hr. Tullberg 
not to adopt Sars’s designation, but to give it a new name 
(Neomenia carinata%). If we now adopt Sars’s name, it is 
both because it has the right of priority and because it applies 
better to the genus, which is essentially characterized by the 
* ‘The Powers of tlie Creator,’ vol. ii. p. 88, pi. x. fig. 11. 
t Forkandl. i Videnskabs-Selsk. i Christiania, Aar 1868, p. 257. 
j Bihang til Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., Band iii. no. 13; “ Neomenia , 
a new Genus of Invertebrate Animals,” by Tycho Tullberg. 
