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380 A^jierican SeasheUs
Subgenus Fleurovieris Conrad 1867
Venericardia tridentata Say Three-toothed Cardita
North Carolina to all of Florida.
V4, inch in length and height, trigonal in shape, inflated, with 15 to 18
heavily beaded strong radial ribs. Beaks close together, pointing slightly
forward. Lunule oval, sharply impressed, smoothish. Escutcheon small, nar-
row. External color grayish brown, sometimes with red-brown mottlings.
Hinge-teeth often purplish blue. Interior of valve stained with light-brown
on white background. A common, moderately shallow-water species, usually
confused with Cardita do77nngiiensis which, however, lacks the strong tridentate
hinge, is ovate in shape, whose ribs are weakly beaded and whose
beaks point toward each other.
Venericardia perplana Conrad
North Carolina to southern half of Florida.
Flattened Cardita
Plate 2 81
^ inch in size, similar to V. borealis but much smaller, without a periostracum,
pinkish or mottled brown, and more obhque. The ribs are wider,
and close to each other. The subspecies flabella Conrad from Tampa Bay,
Florida, has fewer ribs which are squarish and separated by furrows almost
equal in size to the ribs themselves. V. perplana is common, flabella only
locally found at certain seasons in few numbers.
Figure 76. Kelsey's Milner Clam, Milneria kelseyi Dall, Yg to ^ inch (southern
Milneria kelseyi Dall
Monterey to Lower California.
California).
Genus Milneria Dall 1881
Kelsey's Milner Clam
Figure 76
% to ^ inch in length. An extraordinary clam which resembles a tiny
Brazil nut. The bottom margins of the valves are pushed in to form a small
cup-shaped hollow. Into this, the females put the 50 or so young whose