in zoology, a genus of insects belonging to the order of vermes teitacea. It is an animal of the limax or snail kind; the shell is one involuted, subovated, obtuse, smooth valve. The aperture on each side is linear, longitudinal, and teethed. There are forty-four species, distinguished by the form of their shells. The pediculus, or common gowrie, is represented Plate LXXXII. fig. 14.

This genus is called cypraea, and venerea, from its being peculiarly dedicated to Venus; who was said to have endowed a shell of this genus with the powers of a remora, so as to impede the course of the ship which was sent by Periander tyrant of Corinth, with orders to castrate the young nobility of Coreyra.