112 

 TEREDO. 



(Plate XXII. Fig. 4.) 



Shell univalve, tubular, tapering, flexuous, pene- 

 trating wood. One end is closed by two hemi- 

 spherical, and the other by two lanceolate valves. 

 It has been doubted whether the Teredines 

 ought not to be considered as multivalve shells, 

 rather than among the most simple of the univalves. 

 The small valves which are attached in pairs to 

 the fore and hind part of the animal are purely 

 testaceous, and as necessary to the habits of the 

 worm as the tube in which he dwells. The ante- 

 rior hemispherical valves are placed at an angle, 

 and furnished internally with a long flat and curved 

 tooth, probably intended to strengthen the mol- 

 luscous head on which this curious boring instru- 

 ment is fixed. The smaller end of the tube, in 

 which, the lanceolate pair are situated, remains at 

 the surface of the perforated wood, and the little 

 valves are used as flood-gates to admit more or less 

 of the water according to necessity. There appears 



