Zoological Illustrations Series II/Plate 20



There are few groups in Conchology, more particularly among the bivalve shells, possessing so great a union of delicacy and beauty as the Tellinæ; and perhaps there is none in which the species, from their general similarity of shape, and variability of colouring, are so little understood. For these reasons, we intend to illustrate this elegant genus very fully.

The Tellinæ appear to hold a station with the most typical groups of the Bivalve Mollusca; or those in which the animal can freely remove, from place to place, by the foot. In all such the shells are solid, regular, and not attached to other substances.

We select the Tellina latirostra of Lamarck for our first subject. As a species it has not been figured; while the original description, which we have transcribed, is so slight, that some uncertainty exists as to the precise species intended by the writer. That to which we here apply the name, is certainly very like, as Lamarck observes, to T. rostrata; although his description, in other respects, is applicable to other species now before us. Our Tellina latirostra is not common, although we once received a considerable number from Amboyna. Its surface is very smooth, but the delicate striæ, which can scarcely be seen by the naked eye, become perfectly clear under a common lens. The Manchester Nat. Hist. Society is in possession of a lovely series, exhibiting the following variations of colour: 1, pure white; 2, rose-coloured round the umbones, paler beyond; 3, entirely rose colour; 4, blush white, with a rosy shade on each side the umbones; 5, pale orange; 6, buff yellow, resembling T. depressa. In all these the points of the umbones are invariably white.