Description

“Panopea zelandica, Quoy and Giamard, 1835. Plate 61, figs. 10, a.

 

Shell large, elongately oval, inequilateral, gaping at both ends, but much more posteriorly, irregularly concentrically ribbed, inflated, but compressed ventrally, rather thin and fragile, white. Beaks anterior, flatly raised, incurved, a little excavated in front, approximate. Anterior end shorter, regularly convex, gaping, the dorsal margin lightly convex and very little descending; posterior end broadly rounded or truncated, the valves slightly expanded, dorsal margin straight or lightly concave, horizontal; basal margin straight, rounded at both ends. Sculpture consisting of broad, irregular, angularly raised concentric ribs, the interstices with fine growth-lines; at the posterior end the ribs are broad and flat. Colour cream-white. Interior white, lightly concentrically grooved. Margins smooth, sharp. Hinge narrow and short, with strong, short nymphs, and a long, conical, erect tooth in each valve. Ligament external, short, very prominent. Adductor-scars unequal, not much impressed, the anterior narrow, elongated, the posterior oval or roundish. Pallial line somewhat irregular, the pallial sinus moderately deep, broadly triangular.

 

Length, 73 mm.; height, 52 mm.; diameter, 29 mm. (type). Length, 102 mm.; height, 60 mm.; diameter, 37 mm.

 

Type in the Mus. Hist. Nat., Paris.

 

Hab. – North and South Islands, and Chatham Islands; from low-water mark to about 5 fathoms, burrowing 12 in. to 18 in. deep in sand.

 

Remark. – P. Solandri was found at Tauranga by Dieffenbach; it is a more compressed form.

 

Fossil. – Miocene and Pliocene.”

 

(Suter, 1913)