On the structure, biology and systematic position ofPharus legumen(L.)

Abstract

The species with which this paper deals was originally included by Linne in the genusSolenand was there retained to be included under that name in the magnificently illustrated account of this genus by Deshayes (1845–48). It was later placed in a new genusCeratisolenby Forbes & Hanley (1853) who considered that it formed ‘the connecting link between the Solenidae and Solecurtidae’. This procedure was followed by Jeffreys (1865). More recently the Solecurtidae were shown by Graham (1934b) having ‘regard to such features as shape, presence of a cruciform muscle and the structure of the foot, siphons, adductor and pedal muscles, supra-axial extension of the outer demibranch, palps, and style-sac and intestine’, to belong to the Tellinacea, a view fully supported by this author (Yonge, 1949). Assigned later to the genusPharuswhich has priority overCeratisolen, this ‘connecting link’ of Forbes & Hanley continued to be associated with the Solenacea by Thiele (1935) in his great systematic account of the Mollusca.