Mr. Jeffreys on a Species of Limopsis. 343. XXXVI r. — On a Species of Limopsis, now living in the British Seas ; with Remarks on the Genus. By J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., F.G.S. &c.* The only result of any interest which accrued from my dredgings this year in the northern seas of these islands was the discovery of the Limopsis aurita of Sassi in a living state. Last year I procured a few small single valves in the same spot ; but, as I had experienced so much difficulty in distinguishing fossil from recent shells, I was not quite certain whether these valves might not have come from a submarine pleistocene bed, notwithstand-ing the freshness of their appearance, and the epidermis being retained on some of them. However, all doubt was removed on the present occasion. A specimen containing the animal was dredged about twenty-two miles off the Island of Unst in Shet-land, at a depth of 85 fathoms, in sandy gravel, together with a tolerably large single valve in an equally recent state. My friend Professor Allman was with me at the time, and has very kindly made a drawing of the soft parts, which I have now the pleasure of exhibiting. As nothing could be seen of the animal, although it was con-stantly and carefully supplied with sea-water for some time, I had no alternative but to kill it by immersion in boiling water, in order to examine it and the interior of the shell ; and the sketch made by Professor Allman and my notes were therefore post mortem^ and are not so complete or satisfactory as I could wish. The appearance of the Limopsis while living and in its native element was extremely beautiful. The surface of the shell was clothed with long and fine hairs, which projected far beyond the edge of the valves, like a fringe of silken eyelashes. These hairs form part of the epidermis, and are not contractile ; and they doubtless serve to protect or warn the feeble moUusk against the insidious attacks of other animals. When the shell becomes dry, the epidermidal hairs shrivel up, and to some extent lose their former beauty. The body is of a milk-white colour. The mantle is open in every part except behind ; it has no tubes or folds, and its edges are thickened and furnished with papilliform glands. The gills or branchiae are disposed as in other members of the same family. The foot is large in proportion to the rest of the body, and is shaped like a tobacconist's knife ; it can in all probability forai a suboval disk at the central portion, as in Pectunculus. The few and imperfect particulars here given serve, however, to show * Communicated by the Author, having been read at the meeting of the British Association held at Cambridge in 1862.
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