of convergent evolution, not the last point of an evolutionary line before 

 complete loss of the tooth. The number and position of hinge teeth has been 

 of primary importance in generic classification in the Veneridae. Therefore, 

 this difference calls for generic separation. Venus verrucosa^ an eastern 

 Atlantic form, is type species for the genus. Therefore, the American species 

 must be given another generic name. The northern quahog was first named 

 Mereenaria violaeea, but that generic name has been considered only as a 

 generic synonym for Venus. Now Mereenaria becomes the valid name for the 

 American group. - J.L.M. 



1961 



Wells, H. W. 1961. 



The fauna of oyster beds with special reference to the salinity factor. 

 Ecol. Monogr. 31: 239-266. 



The study was made in the Newport River and environs, a North Carolina 

 coastal estuary near Beaufort. Mereenaria mereenaria is found in the 

 substrate between oysters or under them. It was found in less than 20% of 

 collections made in this study. Hard clams were found as far upstream as 

 Cross Rock, where mean salinity of 20 observations was 18.98°/°° and 

 individual observations ranged from 0.6 to 35.4°/°°. They burrow into the 

 substrate, often in shelly bottoms near oyster beds. Wells comments that 

 this abundance is probably due to the utility of shell as a substrate for 

 setting of larvae. (Abstracter's note: other authors have suggested that 

 presence of shell inhibits predation.) Experiments with M. mereenaria 5 5 

 to 120 mm long failed to establish a low salinity death point at temps of 

 25. 3-2 7. 5 °C. The animal must rely on its store of glycogen for anaerobic 

 respiration while the valves are closed, and the amount in storage 

 determines the length of time that the clam can remain closed. Smaller, 

 young animals usually die first. Mereenaria is considered to be among the 

 most tolerant of all estuarine animals to low salinities. But during the 

 low salinity period caused by two hurricanes that passed over the area on 

 12 and 17 August 1955, many hard clams died, and the death rate, as might 

 be expected, was higher than for oysters. - J.L.M. 



1962 



Wells, William Firth. 1933. 



Method of shellfish culture. Patent no. 1,933,950, Nov. 14, 1933: 

 139. U.S. Patent Office official Gazette. 



In the artificial culture of shellfish, the step which removes bodies sub- 

 stantially larger than the shellfish by centrifuging the culture water 

 before supplying it to the shellfish. In the artificial cultivation of 

 shellfish, the process which introduces the larvae into a confined and 

 isolated body of culture water, from which bodies inimical to larval develop- 

 ment have been removed, removing larvae in a mass from the culture water 

 when it has become deficient in developing value, and transferring the mass 

 of larvae to another confined and isolated body of culture water from which 

 bodies inimical to development of larvae have been removed. - J.L.M. 



1963 



Wells, William Firth. 1969. 



Early oyster culture investigations by the New York State Conservation 

 Commission (1920-1926). State of N.Y. Conserv. Dept. , Div. Mar. Coastal 

 Resources, 119 p. 



This volume contains reprints of 7 articles by W. F. Wells from annual 

 reports of the Commission. They deal with techniques for shellfish culture 

 in hatcheries, purification techniques, artificial collection of seed in 

 nature, and successful propagation of other mollusks, including quahog. 

 Figures of various stages of quahog development are included. Discussion 

 of culture of Mereenaria mereenaria is confined to a few brief and general 

 remarks, leaving the impression that routine rearing of hard clam was not 

 yet assured. - J.L.M. 



546 



