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Show 1881.] 'LIGHTNING' AND 'PORCUPINE' EXPEDITIONS. 711 1. ASTARTE SULCATA, DaCosta. Pectunculus sulcatus, DaCosta, Brit. Conch, p. 192. A. sulcata, B.C. ii. p. 311, pi. vi. f. 3; v. p. 183, pi. xxxvn. f. 1, 2. 'Lightning' Exp. : St. 1, 2, 5. 'Porcupine' Exp. 1869 : St. 1, 3 (var. minor), 6, 9, 13, 14 (var. minor), 23a, 25, 33, 45, 45a, 456, 62, 65, Little Minch. 1870 : Atl. l-3a, 8-10, 13, 22, 24, Setubal B., C. Sagres, 25-30 (and var. levis, which is squarish, convex, and ribless or smooth), Tangier B. ; Med. Capo de Gata, Cartagena B., 50, Adventure Bank, off Rinaldo's Chair. All these last belong to the varieties minor and fusca or in-crassata. DistriBution. Spitzbergen to the Eastern Mediterranean and Adriatic, Siberia, E. Greenland, N.E. America, G. Mexico, Canaries ; 3-400 fms. Fossil. Upper Tertiaries and Post-tertiary : Siberia, Scandinavia, G. Britain, S. France, Italy, Rhodes, N.E. America; 0-1360 ft. This is a most polymorphous and puzzling species, as regards shape, size, sculpture, and other characters. Two of the most noteworthy varieties are Tellina fusca of Poli = Venus incrassata, Brocchi, and Crassina elliptica of Brown ; the former has a southern, and the latter a northern habitat. The crenulation of the inner margin is by no means indicative of full growth. Venus gallina and many other species of that genus possess the same character in all states of growth. The late Dr. Morch referred the variety elliptica to Venus compressa of the * Mantissa plantarum ;' hut the description, or rather diagnosis, in that work is much too indefinite for such identification, and no habitat is given. If this were not so, compressa would take precedence of sulcata as. the specific name. 2. ASTARTE ACUTICOSTATA, Jeffreys. (Plate LXL fig. 9.) A. acuticostata (Jeffr.), Friele, Nyt Mag. f. Naturvid. 1877, separate copy, p. 1. ' Lightning' Exp. St. 1, 3. ' Porcupine ' Exp. 1869, St. 65. DistriBution. Norwegian arctic Exp., 259-650 fms.; Novaya Zemblia (Leche); Osterfiord, W . Norway (young), 200 fms. Although I have proposed to constitute this as a distinct species, I have some misgivings that it may be only another well marked variety of that protean species, A. sulcata. Its characteristic differences consist not merely in its dwarf size and numerous ribs, but in its rhombic shape, as well as in the ribs being sharp and more or less laminar or imbricated, and in the dorsal margin being straight. The inner margin is plain. 3. ASTARTE CRENATA, Gray. Nicania crenata, Gray in Suppl. App. Parry's 1st Voyage (1824), p. ccxlii. |