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Rh obscure) running across the center of the valve just anterior to the 2 small, projecting cardinal teeth. Color of shell whitish purple, covered externally with a very thin, chestnut-brown, glossy periostracum. A common shallow- water species. Tagehis subteres Conrad Purplish Pacific Tagelus Plate 29s Santa Barbara, California, to Lower California. I to 2 inches in length, subcylindrical, slightly arcuate with the dorsal margins sloping down from the beaks. Color pale purple inside and out. Periostracum yellowish brown and finely wrinkled. Moderately common in shallow water in sandy mud. Tagehis politiis Carpenter from Central America does not slope down from the beaks so strongly, is a thinner shell and much more darkly colored with violet. Genus Meter odonax Morch 1853 Shell less than i inch in length, resembling a strong, oval Tellina. Two cardinals and two lateral teeth in each valve, the laterals usually not very distinct. Pallial sinus extends % the length of the shell. Heterodonax bimaculatus Linne Small False Donax Plate 3oh South half of Florida and the West Indies. Southern Cahfornia to Panama. % to I inch in length, oval, with a truncate anterior end and moderately inflated. Exterior smoothish, with numerous fine growth lines. 2 cardinals in each valve. Anterior to the beaks (which point forward), the hinge is thick for a short distance, then followed by a thinner, concave portion. Color variable: white with 2 oblong crimson spots inside; violet with radial streaks; pink, yellow or mauve; some are speckled with black or brown. This is a common species found with Donax on the slopes of sandy beaches. H. pa- cificiis Conrad is a synonym. Genus Gari Schumacher 18 17 Shell fairly large, elongate-oval, beaks near the center; hinge thick and with 2 small, bifid teeth just under the beak. Alias Psainmobia Lam. 18 18. Subgenus Fsamvtocola Blainville 1824 Gari calif ornica Conrad Californian Sunset Clam Plate 2911 Aleutians to off San Diego, California. Japan.