166 TELLINID^. 



Animal with the mantle widely open in front, its margins 

 fringed ; foot tongue-shaped, compressed ; siphons separate, 

 usually very long and slender ; palpi large, triangular ; gills 

 united posteriorly, unequal, the outer pair sometimes directed 

 dorsally. 



The Tellens are found in all seas, chiefly in the littoral and 

 laminarian zones ; they frequent sandy bottoms, or sandy mud, 

 burying beneath the surface ; a few species inhabit estuaries and 

 rivers. Their valves are often richly colored and ornamented 

 with finely sculptured lines. 



Subfamily TELLININM. 



Shell oval or wide, sometimes slightly gaping posteriorly ; 

 ligament external, prominent. Siphons elongated. 



AsAPHis, Modeer, 1193. 



Syn. — Capsula, Schum., 181Y. Capsa (part), Brug., 1191. 

 Sanguinolai'ia, Lam., 1818, not 1801. Pliorhytis, Conrad. 



Didr. — 5 sp. West Indies, Red Sea, India, China, Australia. 

 Fossil. Eocene — ; United States, Europe. A. dejiorata, Linn, 

 (cxi, 55). 



Shell oblong, ventricose, slightlj' gaping at each end ; radiately 

 striated ; cardinal teeth 2 in each valve, one of them bifid ; liga- 

 ment external, large, prominent ; siphonal inflection short. 



Animal like Psammobia ; foot moderate ; gills deeply plaited, 

 attenuated in front, outer small, dorsal border wide, fixed ; 

 siphons moderate. 



Gari, Schumacher, 1811. 



Syn. — Psammobia, Lam., 1818. Sanguinolaria, Roissy, 1805. 

 Lutricola (partim), Blainv., 1824. Psammosolen, Bronn, 1831. 



Distr. — 80 sp. Norway, Britain, India, New Zealand, Pacific ; 

 littoral — coralline zone, 100 fathoms. G. gariis eaten in India, 

 Fossil, 55 sp. Cretaceous — ; United States, Europe. G.insignis, 

 Desh. (cxi, 40). G. vespertina, Chemn. (cxi, 68 .' 



Shell transverse, oval-oblong, flat, equivalve, subequilateral, 

 concentrically plicate, a little gaping on each side and covered 

 by a thin epidermis ; hinge narrow, with two small cardinal teeth, 

 sometimes bifid, in each valve ; beaks small ; ligament long and 

 prominent; margins simple; muscular impressions rather large, 

 equally distant from the hinge, the anterior oblong, the posterior 

 rounded ; pallial impression distant from the margin, with a 

 narrow, profound sinus. 



Animal: mantle open, fringed; siphons very long, slender, 

 nearly equal, longitudinally ciliated, orifices with 6-8 cirri; foot 

 large, tongue-shaped; palpi long, tapering; gills unequal, recum- 

 bent, few-plaited. 



