in zoology, a genus of insects belonging to the order of vermes testacea. The shell is bivalve, and the valves are unequal. One valve is perforated near the hinge; affixed by that perforation to some other body. There are 25 species of the anomia; of which only two are natives of the British seas, viz. 1. The ephippium, with the habit of an oyster; the one side convex, the other flat; perforated; adherent to other bodies, often to oyster-shells, by a strong tendinous ligature; colour of the inside, perlaceous. Size, near two inches diameter. 2. The squamula, with shells resembling the scales of fish; very delicate, and filivery; much flattened; perforated; very small. Adheres to oysters, crabs, lobsters, and shells. The species of this genus are commonly called Beaked cockles. No name has been given to the fish that inhabit it; for the recent shells of this kind are so very rare, that there is scarcely one to be found perfect. They are perhaps, as well as that which has given its form to the cornu ammonis, inhabitants of the deepest parts of the ocean; consequently it must be some extraordinary agitation of that great body of water that can bring them at all to our knowledge in their recent state.

The fossile species of the Anomia genus are uncommonly numerous in this island, in our chalk-pits and limestone-quarries; and, in Gloucestershire, they are as common on the ploughed lands as pebbles in other places.