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Show 18S1.] 'LIGHTNING' A N D ' P O R C U P I N E ' E X P E D I T I O N S . 931 ened by a rib on the upper part of the posterior side; the whole surface is covered with minute prickly tubercles arranged lengthwise in numerous rows : colour yellowish-white: epidermis inconspicuous : margins in front slightly curved, fibrous at the edges : beaks triangular, somewhat incurved ; umbones prominent: hinge-plate thick : inside of a silvery lustre. L. (about) 0*5, B. (about) 0*8. 'Porcupine' Exp. 1869: St. 23a. 1870: Atl. 27-29. Fragments only. DistriBution. Palermo {Monterosato); 65 fms. (120 m.). 1. PECCHIOLIA ABYSSICOLA, M. Sars. Lyonsiella aByssicola, M. Sars, Vid.-Selsk. Forh. 1868, p. 257. P. aByssicola, G. O. Sars, 'On some remarkable Forms of Animal Life from the great deeps of the Norwegian coast,' i. p. 25, pi. iii. f. 21-43 ; Moll. Reg. arct. Norv. p. 82, t. 20. f. 5, a-d. 'Porcupine' Exp. 1869: St. 1, 6, 23a, 39. 1870: Atl. 16, 17, 17«. DistriBution. Spitzbergen to the Skagerack, ' Valorous ' Exp., Davis Strait, N e w England ; 50-1450 fms. B O D Y yellowish, streaked with pink at the sides : mantle thick: tuBes sessile ; the larger tube is wide and exposes the gills, and it is fringed with a few short orange-colour tentacular cirri; the smaller or excretal tube (which is situate at the broader end of the shell) is circular : foot conical and white, protruded at the narrower end of the shell. I feel myself compelled by the laws of scientific nomenclature to use the generic term Pecchiolia instead of Verticordia. The latter name was proposed in 1844 by Mr. Searles Wood for a Crag shell which was figured by Mr. James Sowerby in his ' Mineral Conchology' (plate 639); but, in consequence of the publication of the second volume of Philippi's work on the Mollusca of the two Sicilies in the same year (1844), Mr. Wood and Mr. Sowerby gave up Verticordia and adopted Hippagus, under the supposition, which they shared with Philippi, that their fossil shell belonged to Lea's genus Hippagus. However, I have elsewhere shown, and it is quite clear, that the last-named genus is the same as Crenella, and referable to another division of the Conchifera. Whether the author of the name Verticordia had a right to repudiate it and erroneously substitute another for it may be questionable. Verticordia had been long previously established by de Candolle for a genus of Myrtacese, and is now commonly used by botanists. Pecchiolia was proposed in 1851 by Meneghini for a well-known Miocene shell, the Chama argentea of Mariti, 1797 = C. arietina, Brocchi, 1814. In Pecchiolia the beak is incurved as in Isocardia, leaving a more or less deep lunule, which is impressed on the hinge, and gives the appearance of a tooth-like projection in some species. But I am by no means satisfied that Pecchiolia is distinguishable from Lyonsia by any sufficient character. 60* |