2IO smith: on the genus astarte. 



By some authors the North American A. undata of Gould, 

 is considered a variety of this species, however it seems to me 

 very inconsistent on their part to deny specific rank to that form, 

 and accord it to the A. crebricostata of Forbes, the one having 

 very few and the other very many concentric ridges, or in other 

 words fewer or more than the typical sulcata. All have the 

 crenulated edge to the valves. Beyond this difference in the 

 number of cosice only feeble distinctions can be pointed out 

 The posterior cessation of the ribs in crebricostata, remarked 

 upon by Forbes and Hanley, to a certain extent occurs in this 

 species and also in undata. These three species together with 

 the A. crenaia Gray and A. fusca Poli, are closely related, and I 

 admit, taking into consideration the many intermediate and 

 connecting forms which I have seen, that I cannot draw a line of 

 demarcation. However the typical form of each. is very distinct 

 and at once recognizable, and although some puzzling inter- 

 mediate grades are met with, still I prefer to allow these so-called 

 species to retain separate specific names, for I do not pretend to 

 say that hereafter characters will be found in the animals which 

 will definitely distinguish such vastly different shells as A. undata 

 and A. crenata. Placing these two side by side I cannot believe 

 it advisable to designate them by one and the same name. 



4.— ASTARTE FUSCA Poll 



1791. Tellina fusca Poli. Test. Ut. Sicil. I., pi. xv., £ 32 — 3. 

 1814. Venus incrassata Brocchi. Conch. Foss.'Subap,, vol. 



ii-) PP- 557 and 670, pi. xiv., £ 7. 

 1829. V. petagnse (Crassina) Costa. Cat. Sistem. test, due 



Sicilie, p. 34 — 5, pi. ii., £ 9« — b. 

 1^35- Crassina fusca Deshayes. Anim. s. vert, ed. 2, vol. vi., 



P- 257- 

 1835. C. incrassata Deshayes, I.e. 



J.C, iii., July, 1881 



