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IO41 



TERTIARY FAUNA OF FLORIDA ^ 



by Asaphis, which is prior ; and the third by Iphigenia, which is not among 

 Bruguiere's figures and cannot be accepted. Bosc, in adopting Lamarck's 

 genus and type of 1799, misspelled the name " Caspa." Under the circum- 

 stances it is probably best to assume that Humphrey (as is entirely probable) 

 preceded Bruguiere and expel the term Capsa from accepted nomenclature. 

 H. and A. Adams, curiously enough, proposed the name Metis for one species 

 of the group which they placed under Tellina as a subgenus, while they 

 gathered the other species of the same group as a subgenus of Scrobicularia, 

 which they called Capsa. In 1825 Blainville consolidated several older genera 

 into one, and instead of utilizing the oldest name for this group, proposed 

 a new one, Lutricola, in violation of the rules of nomenclature ; and in 1863 

 Carpenter revived this rejected name for the species properly belonging under 

 Metis, an inadmissible proceeding. 



This group, extending, with its characteristics well developed, far back 

 into the Tertiary, seems entitled to generic rank, on the same grounds as 

 Strigilla, etc. The type is Tellina Meyeri Dunker (in Phil.), a recent species 

 from the East Indies. 



Metis trinitaria 11. sp. 



Plate 46, Figure 24. 



Tellina biplicata Guppy, Proc. Geol. Soc, v., 22, p. 588, 1866 (not of Conrad) ; Proc. 



Sci. Assoc. Trinidad, p. 161, 1867, etc. 

 Tellina sagra Guppy, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. Lend., Nov., 1876, p. 530; Dall and 



Guppy, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xix., p. 329, 1896; not of d'Orbigny. 



Oligocene of the West Indies, in the " Caroni series" of Trinidad, and 

 near Santiago de Cuba at about two hundred and fifty feet elevation on the 

 line of the ore railway ; Guppy and King. 



Shell anteriorly elongated and dorso-ventrally attenuated, the anterior 

 dorsal slope rapid, the anterior end rounded; the disk mesially constricted, 

 the posterior end short, high, blunt, strongly folded ; beaks high, surface 

 sculptured with numerous small, sharp, slightly elevated concentric lamellae, 

 which are closer towards the ends of the shell ; interior with the pallial sinus 

 larger and higher in the left valve, about half confluent below, deep and 

 rounded in front. Lon. 52, alt. 41, diam. 19 mm., but reaching twice this size. 



The peculiar anterior elongation and arcuate form of this species distin- 

 guish it clearly from the other American species. Guppy erroneously iden- 

 tified it with a Miocene and also with a Pleistocene species, from both of 

 which comparison shows it perfectly distinct. 



