278 JOURNAL OP CONCHOLOGY, VOL. ll, NO. g, JANUARY, I906. 



exotic shell, but Locard has described a form under this name which 

 appears to be a purplish variety of T. texturatus} The varieties 

 mahillei and nitidosa are more inflated than the type, rostrata is 

 more oblique, reiorta oblique, short, and high, resembling T. aureus 

 in shape but having the other characters of texturatus. 



3. — Tapes pulchellus. With regard to the form called Tapes 

 pulchellus, M. Dautzenberg informs me that the type does not exist 

 at Geneva, but that the figures given by Delessert of Lamarck's type 

 in 1 84 1 have more resemblance to a form of T. rhomboides ( ^vir- 

 gineus), and he consequently would now exclude pulchellus from the 

 aureus group. To this I may add that Delessert's figure appears to 

 have been copied by Hanley in his " Catalogue of Recent Bivalve 

 Shells" (pi. 13, fig. 39, 1843), ^'^^ that its resemblance to what we 

 know as T. virgineus is so great that I had so regarded it before 

 becoming aware of M. Dautzenberg's opinion. 



4. — Tapes elongatus. Lastly, we come to the form described 

 under the name of Tapes aureus var. elongataj^ which is a local form 

 found in the Gulf of Gabes, on the east coast of Tunis. It is a 

 long, narrow, compressed shell, finely striated and glistening, of a light 

 yellow or pink colour, either uniform in tint or with faint colour- 

 tracery on the posterior part. In length it averages from 35 to 40 mm. 

 To judge from a specimen which M. Dautzenberg has kindly sent me, 

 the shell is fairly stout, like that of T. rhomboides and T aureus ; the 

 lunule is not defined by an impressed line as in the latter, but re- 

 sembles that of the former, so that it seems to me rather more nearly 

 allied to rhomboides than it is to aureus. 



Before going further, it is necessary to say a few words on the 

 names adopted for these main varieties or species. The form for 

 which the name caienifer was adopted by Messrs. Bucquoy, Dautzen- 

 berg, and Dollfus is acknowledged to be the Venus Iceta of Poli (1795), 

 and this name has priority over any of the Lamarckian names, but 

 unfortunately it had previously been applied to another Venus by 

 Linnaeus. It is true that Venus Iceta Linn, is a Aferetrix, and Venus 

 Iceta Poli is a Tapes, so that no confusion could arise if Poll's name 

 were revived for the latter ; but many conchologists adhere to the 

 principle of " once a synonym always a synonym," and the authors of 

 the " Molluscs of Roussillon" are evidently of this opinion, for they 

 reject the name of Icetus and adopt that of catenifer for this group. 

 The name of floridus stands first in Lamarck's list, and he intended 

 this for Poll's type, but this also was a synonym, Poli himself having 



1 Btill. Soc. Maine, dc France, vol. 3, p. 283, 1886, and " Coq. Marines des cotes de France, " 

 p. 294, 1892. It may be the T. florideUa of Reeve, " Conch. Icon." 



2 " Moll. Mar. dii Roussillon," vol. 2, p. 429, pi. 64, tigs. 11, 12, 13. 



