The Plaited Shells

THE PLAITED SHELLS Genus PLICATULA, Lam.

Shell irregular, oblique, attached by umbo of right valve; valves usually plaited. Few living species.

The Plaited Shell (P. ramosa, Lam.) is a little flattened clumsy bivalve, with rusty hair lines on the plaited surface. The hinge locks by two teeth on the left (upper) valve which are inserted between the two set wide apart on the right. These sedentary mollusks appear to accumulate limy deposits on the shells as age advances, and serpulee and barnacles become at tached. West Indian specimens are largest. Length, i inch.

Habitat.— North Carolina southward.

P. Mantelli,

Lea., found on our Gulf coast as fragile flat valves, indistinctly eared at the hinge, faintly ridged and delicately marked with brown, are a trifle smaller than P. ramosa.