Pvn H,i I'UitlS

184 GALEOMMIM.
A. imbricata, or an allied species from the West Indies,
enclosing the dried remains of the animal, and marked
in his handwriting " Area rostrata, Plymouth." Mr.
Leckenby found a dead specimen and an odd valve of
the same species in a mass of Filograna compleoca, which
was brought to him by a fisherman from the Dogger
bank. I merely notice the occurrence of these shells
with a view to further inquiry.
Family VII. GALEOM'MIDJE, Gray.
Body oval, compressed, thick and fleshy: mantle closed,
except in front for the passage of the foot, and at each end,
where a tube is formed for alimentary and excretal purposes ;
it has two lobes, one of which is folded externally over the
shell, and the other is internal, and has its margin fringed
two on
with cirri or filaments and is studded with ocelli :
each side :
foot large
gills and flexible : byssus strong.
Shell oblong, equivalve, nearly equilateral, pearly and
reticulated, gaping widely
toothless.
in front :
cartilage internal : hinge
This curious and anomalous family consists of only
one genus and one species, so far as concerns the British
mollusca ;
and neither the family nor that genus is well
represented abroad. It is related to the last family
through Area, and to the next family (Kelliida:) through
Lepton; but it cannot be placed in either, consistently
with the ordinary principles of classification. The ani-
mal of Galeomma has ocelli, like some species of Area ;
and the shell of each has a straight hinge-line, and a
large opening on the opposite side— for the passage of
the foot in the one case, and of the byssus in the other.
But the shell of Galeomma is covered by a fold of the
mantle, instead of by an epidermis, and for the external
ligament of Area is substituted an internal cartilage ;