Pvn H,i I'UitlS

332 VEXERID^E.
nitidissima. It is not the V. lupinus of Brocchi, nor
the V. sinuata of Gnielin, the latter being a reputed in-
habitant of the Nicobar Isles. Turton strangely figured
V. eocoleta for his V. sinuata, in the '
Dithyra '
specimen of the last-named species is certainly
He evidently confounded the two.
: his typical
V. eocoleta.
B. Mantle -tubes nearly united throughout. Shell triangular,
slightly impressed with concentric lines ; inside margin
plain.
3. V. Chi'one *, Linne.
V. Chione, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1131. Cytherea Ckione, F. & H. i. p. 396.
pi. xrvii., and (animal) pi. L. f. 8.
Body orange-ueshcolour : mantle fringed with a few tenta-
cular cirri at the upper part of the anterior side, and scalloped
or furbelowed in other parts : tubes rather long, united nearly
to their orifices, each of which is surrounded by a circle of
cirri ; the tubes are of a deep orange- colour with fleshy stripes,
and the tips of the cirri are black : foot very large, thick, and
of a dark pinkish-neshcolour. (Poli.)
Shell triangularly oval, convex but not tumid, very solid
and :
opaque, highly polished sculpture, numerous and irregular
but slight concentric lines or striae, besides about a dozen
marks of growth : colour reddish-brown, with often a pink
tinge, beautifully variegated by rays of a deeper hue and of
different widths, which diverge from the beak in the direction
of the anterior side, and extend to the outer margins ; these
rays are interrupted in the young and become zigzag or exhibit
lines of intensely coloured spots (bordering the marks of
periodical growth) of various tints from fawncolour to bright
orange or sea-green ; a younger state has three longitudinal
broad white rays, one in the middle, and the others on either
a coat of var-
side of the beaks : epidermis thick, resembling
nish, covered with close-set longitudinal striae, which are
with the concentric lines of
arranged in series corresponding
the shell ; its surface is wrinkled very minutely, like that of
morocco -leather : margins rounded on the anterior side, whence
they slope obliquely to the front, which is also rounded ; poste-
* A mythological name in Ovid.