Pvn H,i I'UitlS

ASTARTE. 311
A. More or less ribbed.
1. Astarte sulcata*, Da Costa.
Pectunculus costatus, Da Costa, Brit, Conch, p. 192. A. sulcata, P. & H.
i. p. 452, pi. xxx. f. 5, 6 (as A. Banmoniensis), pi. cxxxiii. f. 4 (as A.
M. f. 5.
sulcata, var.), and (animal) pi.
Body more or less tinged with fleshcolour : mantle plain-
edged, and girt with a narrow belt of orange : tubes scarcely
separated from each other ;
the mantle :
gills of a pale yellowish hue :
orifices bordered with orange, like
palps rather large,
of a lanceolate-triangular shape, strongly striated external!)-,
and of a pale tawny colour :
foot not large in proportion to the
shell, of a pale flesh or fawncolour. [This description has
been taken from the ' British Mollusca.' I suspect that the
animal had been killed with hot water before it was examined.
Being so common, I omitted to make any note of it ; but my
recollection of the colour and proportions does not agree with
the above.]
Shell obtusely triangular, with an oblique outline, some-
what compressed, thick, of a dull hue :
sculpture, 2A-AS) strong
and angular ribs, which are much more crowded towards the
beaks and gradually vanish or are wholly wanting on the
posterior side ; the surface is also covered with intermediate
concentric but irregular striae : colour milk-white beneath the
epidermis, which is chestnut or of various shades of brown,
and marked with exquisitely minute and innumerable hair-
like, slightly undulating, and punctured
transverse striae :
margins curved in front and on the anterior side, and slightly
truncate on the posterior side : beaks excentric, considerably
recurved towards the anterior side : lunule and corselet deep,
well defined, and smooth : ligament short, yellowish or horncolour,
enclosed within the dorsal line, and partly contained in
a groove excavated out of the hinge-plate :
liinge-line obtusely
in the
triangular : hinge-plate thick and broad, especially
middle, occupying about one-third of the circumference : teeth,
in the right valve three cardinals, the outermost and posterior of
which is very indistinct and laminar, and the other two are
much larger, obliquely triangular, and diverge outwards, leav-
ing a deep and triangular cavity between them for the recep-
tion of the middle tooth of the left valve ; there is also an
obscure lateral on each side ; the left valve has likewise three
* Furrowed.