Abstract
I WISH to request any of your readers who may dredge, or have opportunity this summer, to observe living or fresh specimens of the genus Neæra, Gray, and see whether branchiæ exist in that group. A Lamellibranch without branchiæ is anomalous, to say the least. I find in a new species of Neæra (sub-genus Myonera) from the Gulf of Mexico the following anatomical facts:—The mantle closed except for the smalt siphon and a narrow short slit for the thorn-shaped foot; no gills, no palps; the oral opening circular, plain; the roof of the peripedal cavity between the base of the body and the mantle margin is flattish, fleshy, with sparse pustules; a peripheral very stout pink muscle runs on each side around this, and is prolonged upward to the shell before the true adductor at each end of each valve, thus accounting for the double scars to be found there; the foot is close to the oral orifice, not grooved for the byssus, but pedunculated and surrounded by a groove; around the siphonal opening are numerous tentacular processes and a moderate number of ocelli. The specimens appear to be adult and perfectly preserved. An examination of specimens of Neæra arctica and Neæra obesa, Lovèn, indicated a similar state of affairs, though these specimens were not in as good condition as the one from the Gulf of Mexico. I do not find in the literature any categorical statement of the observation of gills in this genus. Clark is non-committal (in his “British Testacea”), Jeffreys speaks of seeing the “pink gills” through the shell, but that which he saw pink was without doubt the circular muscle I have mentioned.
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DALL, W. Neæra. Nature 34, 122 (1886). https://doi.org/10.1038/034122b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/034122b0
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