Zoology, a genus of insects belonging to the order of vermes testacea. Their 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 silvery; much flattened; perforated; very small. Adheres to oysters, crabs, lobsters, and shells. This species of the genus are commonly called Beaked Cockle. No name has been given to the fish that inhabits 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. See Conchology Index.

The fossil 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 on other places.