TRANSACTIONS OF WAGNER 

 1452 



^ TERTIARY FAUNA OF FLORIDA 



Velorita Gray, Synopsis Brit. Mus., pp. 75, 91, 1842, Ude Gray; ibid., 1844; P. Z. S., 

 1847, p. 184; Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 2d Ser., xi., p. 38, 1853; Deshayes, Cat. Conch. 

 Brit. Mus., ii., p. 219, 1854. 

 The type of this genus is 



Villorita cyprinoides (Wood). 

 Cyrena cyprinoides Gray, Ann. Phil., N. S.. ix., p. 137, 1825 ; Wood, Ind. Test. Suppl., 



pi. ii., fig. 14, 1828. 

 Villorita cyprinoides Gray, Griffith's Cuvier, Moll., p. 601, pi. xxxi., fig. 5, 1833. 

 Velorita cyprinoides Gray, P. Z. S., 1847, p. 184; not Cyrena cyprinoides Quoy. 



The name of this genus appears to have been formed b)' an arbitrary com- 

 bination of letters, which does not admit of correction from the form iirst used 

 by its author. 



It is characterized in the recent type species by elevated and swollen beaks, 

 concentric sculpture, a small, angular pallial sinus. The left cardinals and the 

 anterior right cardinal are entire, the latter subpyramidal ; the other two right 

 cardinals are bifid. The left anterior lateral is adjacent, short, thick, and 

 arcuate, entering a socket above the pustular right anterior lateral. The pos- 

 terior lateral is more distant and elongate and is finely striated. There is no 

 defined lunule or escutcheon. The dental formula is ^■°'°-'°'°'°°'° . The species 

 occur in Japan, Malacca, and Indo-China in rivers, and one has been asserted 

 to inhabit Liberia. The hinge, so far as the laterals are concerned, recalls 

 Rangia, with which it is cotnpared by Bernard, but the relationship is that of 

 a similar result produced by dynamic influences and not genetic, as Rangia is 

 certainly Mactroid and very closely related to Mulinea. 



A singular shell dredged out of the ship channel of Tampa Bay, in rock 

 belonging to the horizon of the Oligocene silex beds of Ballast Point, appears 

 to have the shell characters of Villorita, though, as in the case of our Tertiary 

 Batissa, I doubt if there is any more intimate relation between the oriental 

 species and the fossil than that both have been evolved from the Cyrenoid 

 stock independently of each other in different quarters of the globe. 



Villorita floridana Dall. 

 Plate 43, Figures 8, 13. 

 Velorita floridana Dall, Trans. Wagner Inst., iii., part v., p. 1 199, pi. xliii., figs. 8, 13, 

 1900. 



Shell large, heavy, elevated, plump, with high prosogyrate beaks and broad 

 hinge-plate ; surface concentrically striated ; lunule and escutcheon not de- 

 fined; hinge with one obscure and two large anterior cardinals, a distant pos- 



