Page:American Seashells (1954).djvu/524

Subgenus Moerella Fischer 1887 Tellina saluionea Carpenter Salmon Tellin Plate 3iy Aleutian Islands to San Pedro, California. /4 inch in length, ovalish, with a short, blunt posterior end. Ligament behind the beaks prominent. Dorsal margin in front of beaks almost straight. Color chalky-white, commonly with a pinkish cast. Periostracum smooth, thin, yellowish tan. Characterized by about 4 to 7 prominent, concentric, former growth-stop lines which are usually stained dark-brown. Common from low tide to 34 fathoms in sand. Do not confuse with meropsis. Tellina 7neropsis Dall Meropsis Tellin Plate 30U San Diego, California, to the Gulf of Cahfornia. % inch in length, ovalish, pure white, smoothish, with exceedingly fine growth lines. Surface silky, but rarely with an iridescent sheen. Beaks slightly toward the posterior end. Ligament not prominent and light-brown. Without growth stoppage lines. See T. sahnonea. Common from shore to 15 fathoms. Tellina carpenteri Dall Carpenter's Tellin Forrester Island, Alaska, to the Gulf of California. Vs inch in length, moderately elongate, with a rounded anterior end and rather truncate posterior end. Ligament short. Color cream, whitish and commonly blushed with watermelon-pink inside and out. It also has a faint iridescent sheen. Found very abundantly in many localities in mud and sand from shore to 369 fathoms. Subgenus Scissula Dall 1900 Tellina similis Sowerby Candy Stick Tellin Plate 40m; figure 86e South half of Florida, the Bahamas and western Caribbean. I inch in length, moderately elongate, moderately compressed, thin but fairly strong. Color opaque-white with a yellowish blush and with 6 to 1 2 short radial rays of red. Interior yellowish with red rays or solid pink or yellow. A red splotch commonly occurs on the hinge in front of the cardinal teeth. Sculpture of concentric growth lines and numerous fine concentric threads njohich cross the shell a-t an oblique angle. Common on sand fiats. T. decora Say is the same species.