Shell composed of two testaceous valves, enclosed in a mantle or membranous bag, which is prolonged and terminated in two fleshy tubes formed like ears, one of the two having a lateral opening.
Ash coloured; the body and ears spotted with black.
1. Aspergillum. The Watering-pot Shell. Four species.
A well-known but rare shell; the larger end closed by a convex disk, with numerous small perforations, and encircled by a dilated margin of elegant papyraceous tubes, resembling a beautifully plaited ruff; the smaller end open. Found in sandy places at low water.
Shell oval, slightly elongated, striated longitudinally, sub-equilateral; adhering, more or less confounded with the coats of a rather thick calcareous tube, conic, club-shaped, open at its attenuated extremity, and terminated at the other by a convex disk pierced by a great number of sub-tubular, rounded holes, and by a fissure in the centre.
Aspergillum Javanum. A. vaginiferum. A. Novæ Zeylandiæ. A. agglutinans.
_A. Javanum._ The Java Aspergillum. Pl. 33, fig. 3.
Species smooth, in which the circumference of the disk is bordered with a waved testaceous fringe.
_A. Novæ Zeylandiæ._ The New-Zealand Aspergillum.
Species in which the circumference of the disk is without a fringe.
An irregular tube, with branches or projecting tubes at the closed end; within it is one free or moveable valve, united by a ligament to another, which is blended with the tube; this distinguishes it from the Aspergillum. Found in sand and coral.
Shell oval, very slightly elongated, striated longitudinally, slightly irregular; equivalve, inequilateral; hinge a little variable; ligament exterior; two well-marked distant muscular impressions; a calcareous sub-cylindrical tube, more or less completely surrounding the shell, and terminated before by a single orifice.
Tube erect, adhering; aperture waved, entire, expanding, funnel-shaped, leaving the two valves open or uncovered in all their anterior part; with an ovate face valve.
Lamarck asserts that the tube and shell of this genus are quite distinct. It so greatly resembles the Teredo that it is with difficulty distinguished. It is found in sand, wood, stone, and sometimes shells.
Shell annular or very short, not sharp nor angular anteriorly, but in other respects much like that of the Teredo.