MULTIVALVE SHELLS 



Genus I. 

 CHITON. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Animal Lophyrus. 



Testes plures longitudinaliter digestae, dorso ineumbentes* 



Animal a Lophyrus. 



Shells (valves or plates) many, arranged longitudinally, and resting on the 

 back. 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



Poli, in the third plate of his splendid work on the 

 shells of the two Sicilies, has given a complete anatomical 

 figure of the animal of the Chiton, from which it appears 

 not to be a Doris, as supposed by Linnaeus, but suffi- 

 ciently distinct to constitute a new genus. The animal 

 has an oval body, flat beneath, without eyes or tentacula, 

 an oval foot ; a head surmounted by a crest, with a 

 wrinkled mouth beneath : the exterior air vessels are 

 separate, pinnated^ and placed round the body, between 

 the mantle (or folding muscle) and the foot. It is 

 obvious that it differs from a Doris in the want of ten- 

 tacula, (or feelers), and in the presence of a crest, a 

 distinction upon which Poli has established his genus, 

 and from whence he has derived his greek name *6tpu?os. 



Chitons are to Testacea what armadillos are to quad- 

 rupeds, and millepedes to insects; that is, like them 



VOL. I. B 



