A new Lyratellina from off the coast of Surinam

The genus Lyratellina was created by OLSONN (1961, p. 383) to contain four species, viz., the type species, Tellina lyra Hanley, T. lyrica Pilsbry & Lowe (both Recent from the West coast of Tropical America), T. protolyra Anderson from the Miocene of North Colombia, and T. aequizonata Pilsbry & Olsson from the Miocene of Ecuador. The interesting material dredged off the coast of Surinam in 1957 bij the ’Coquette’ appeared to contain a fifth species of this group. At first I hesitated to place this new species in Lyratellina, as OLSSON states that in this genus there is a single bifid cardinal tooth in the right valve, whilst the two right valves from Surinam have a small anterior cardinal in front of this posterior bifid one. However, when examining the type and paratype of Tellina lyra Hanley in the British Museum (Natural History), I found that both these right valves too posses a small anterior cardinal tooth placed between the bifid posterior cardinal and the lunular margin of the valve. So OLSSON’s description and his figure (OLSSON, 1961, pl. 70 fig. 1) of the hinge of Tellina lyra proved not to be correct in this respect.