PLATE LXXVIII. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 



Shell roundish, heartshape, yellowish, transversely striated^ and 

 subreticulated, with angular rufous lines. 



Venus HumpHREYI : testa flavescente rotundato-cordata tratis- 

 versim striata lineisangularibusrufissubretiLuLata. 



Lately discovered by Mr. Humphrey on the sea coast of Van 

 DiemanVLand. This elegant species appears to be perfectly new, 

 although from its very near approximation to Venus Striatulus, one 

 of the most abundant of the European species of the Venus tribe, 

 this may not at the first view appear obvious Upon an attentive 

 comparison of those two shells it will be perceived that in Venus 

 Striatulus the anterior part of the shell is produced or lengthened 

 out, and somewhat pointed, while in the shell before us that part is 

 rotundate, and the whole shell more inclining to a roundish oval form. 

 It is this difference in the outline of the two shells that constitutes 

 the most material distinction of the species, for the difference between 

 them in colour is far less considerable in some examples of our Euro- 

 pean Striatulus, than the varieties of Striatulus which are occasionally 

 met with are from each other. The fuscous lineations in our New 

 Holland shell are minute, very numerous, and broken into dots or 

 points by the transverse striae of the shell ; they are so generally in 

 a less considerable degree in V. Striatulus, yet we have examples of 



VOL. HI. 



Donovan's British Shells, plate 68. 

 D 



