Sea Shells 
of New Zealand 
Plate V 
No. 22 
ing, and for this reason should be left to dry naturally 
before being deposited in the cabinet; or they may be 
soaked in methylated spirit for twenty-four hours. As 
the creatures are by no means fleshy, they shrivel up in a 
very short space of time. From the difference in anato- 
mical structure of the animal to the other mollusca, the 
valves are not right and left, but upper and lower; tech- 
nically, dorsal and ventral. Although included among the 
molluscs in the Manual of the New Zealand Mollusca, the 
Lamp shells are regarded as a sub-kingdom quite apart 
from the mollusca, and are collectively named Molluscoidea, 
their exact position in the scale of creation not being quite 
understood. About an inch long, and rather less in breadth. 
Rangitoto Island; Mount Maunganui; Oamaru; Chat- 
ham and Auckland Islands. 
TEREBRATELLA SANGUINEA (terebratella, dim. of 
terebratus, perforated; sanguinea, red, blood-red) .—A large 
Lamp shell, with its two valves, dorsal and ventral, of an 
orange-red colour, rather than of a sanguinary hue, in 
spite of its specific name. The upper valve has a some- 
what raised area extending towards the front margin, and 
the lower valve a like area, which is depressed, both reach- 
ing from the beaks to the front border. The sculpture con- 
sists of radiate ribs and well-marked growth lines. The 
round hole, which looks upwards, is in the ventral valve, 
at the beak, which curves upwards and forwards. The 
Terebratella sanguinea is an inch and a-half long by an 
inch and a-quarter broad and an inch deep. 
From Cook Strait to Stewart Island, and in the North 
Island, dredged off Cape Colville. 
HEMITHYRIS NIGRICANS (hemi, half; thyreos, a 
shield ; nigresco, to grow black).—A Lamp shell of a bluish 
or dark chocolate brownish black colour, strongly marked 
with rounded radiate ribs, commencing from the hinge 
and spreading outwards to the front margin. The upper 
valve is rounded and high, the lower one much flatter, 
with a decided groove, occupying about one-third of the 
shell, and extending from the front to about half-way to 
the beak. The beak is narrow, sharply pointed, and the 
whole shell is somewhat quadrilateral. It is also much 
wider from side to side than from back to back, propor- 
tions reversed to those of the other two species previously 
described. It is about seven-eighths of an inch across. 
From the Great Barrier Island to Stewart Island and 
the Chatham Islands. 
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