“Chione stutchburyi (Gray, 1828). [P. 987]
I provide the new generic name Austrovenus for this species. It compares well with no other Chione, and is a distinctive Neozelanic evolutionary product. It is found fossil from the mid-Pliocene onwards, produced a crass and tumid offshoot in C. crassitesta Finlay (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 55, p. 478, 1924), and has a “Miocene” (or earlier) relative in C. acuminata Hutton (N.Z. Geol. Surv. Pal. Bull. No. 2, p. 51, 1914).
The spissa group has had an addition made to it in the form of C. mawsoni, described by Hedley from Macquarie Island. (1916, p. 33). This species, spissa Desh., and the Pliocene subsulcata Suter are related to a well marked Australian series for which Iredale has proposed the genus name Chioneryx (1924, p. 210), naming Erycina cardioides Lk (= Antigona striatissima (Sow.) auct.) as type, but are not quite the same, and have been separated by Marwick.”
(Finlay, 1927: 470)
Austrovenus is a genus of marine bivalve molluscs, in the family Veneridae. This genus is native to New Zealand.
Species in the genus Austrovenus include:
Austrovenus is a genus of marine bivalve molluscs, in the family Veneridae. This genus is native to New Zealand.
