Anatifa spinosa. Quoy et Gaimard. Voyage de l’Astrolabe. Pl. xciii, fig. 17.
P. capitulo valvarum uno aut pluribus sub-rostro verticillis instructo: laterum pari superiore vix inferioribus longiore: membranâ valvas tegente (post desiccationem) subfuscâ flavescente: pedunculi squamis inæqualibus, non symmetricis: verticillis longiusculè distantibus.
Capitulum with one or more whorls of valves under the rostrum: upper pair of latera only slightly larger than the lower latera: membrane covering the valves (when dried) light yellowish-brown: scales of the peduncle of unequal sizes, unsymmetrical, arranged in rather distant whorls.
Maxillæ, with the edge square and straight: caudal appendages uniarticulate: filamentary appendages, none.
New Zealand. Mus. Jardin des Plantes, Paris: Mus. Cuming.
Capitulum, flattened, triangular, broad, with the valves varying in number, in full-grown specimens of the same size, from 30 to above 60; the scuta, terga, and carina are very much larger than the other valves; the rostrum, however, is nearly half the size of the carina; the remaining valves are exceedingly small. In some specimens there is only one whorl under the carina; in other specimens there are distinctly two whorls. The scuta, terga, and carina stand pretty close together; they are moderately thick, and are covered, in chief part, by yellowish-brown membrane, which is destitute of spines.
Scuta, triangular, broad, basal margin slightly protuberant.
Terga, as large as the scuta, flat, regularly oval, basal point blunt and rounded.
Carina very slightly curved, triangular, internally rather deeply concave, basal margin straight. The inner and growing surface is four fifths of the entire length of the valve. In half-grown specimens the apex projects a little outwards.