*All of several authorities consulted render this "securis" vs. "secure." Temple Prime's original description is not in my reach, but I suspect he named his Fingernailclam Cyclas securis. Cyclas Lamarck 1798 is considered a junior synonym of Sphaerium Scopoli, 1777. The generic epithet employed by Lamarck is a feminine noun in Latin (derived from the Greek "Kyklas," diminutive of "Kyklos," the latter a masculine noun), and was thus treated by Lamarck, Say (e.g., 1929: Cyclas transversa) and others. When Musculium Link, 1807 resurfaced, the adjectival species-level epithets of taxa assigned to it had to conform to its neuter gender. Until I looked the word "securis" up, I thought I had a grammatical "gotcha" for the "authorities" as I presumed securis was a third declension adjective (neuter: secure) and "they" forgot to change its gender when the species moved from Cyclas to Musculium. Now that I've "read the directions" (in a Latin dictionary), I know that "securis" is not an adjective but a noun (Eng.: "hatchet"), and an apt cognomen for the illustrated shells. Thus it seems almost certain that Mr. Prime applied the epithet "securis" as an noun-in-apposition, which grammatical status exempts it from gender-agreement with its genus name. The Latin adjective securus -a, -um (Eng.: "free from care") is clearly a different word with different spellings and not at all likely Prime's target. [Harry G. Lee]