202 ZONITES. 



f 



H. MINUSCULA, Bmney. PI. 50, figs. 58-63. 



Widely umbilicated, minute, whitish; whorls 4, moderately 

 enlarging, microscopically striate, suture rather deeply im- 

 pressed ; aperture nearly circular. Diam. 2*5 mill. 



All the United States south to Florida. Texas, 



California, British America, Japan, Mexico, 



Bermuda, Jamaica, Porto Rico, Venezuela. 



A species of very wide distribution, including the following 

 S3*nonyms : H. apex, C. B. Adams ; H. Lavalleana, d'Orb (figs. 

 61-63); H. minutalis, Morelet ; H. Mauriniana, Binney and 

 Pfeiffer, not d'Orb. ; H. saxicola, Pfr. 



Dr. Dall (Proc. Nat. Mas., viii, No. 17) writes : 



" There is a curious tangle in regard to the name of this spe- 

 cies. In the second number (May) of the descriptive, or first 

 volume, of the Archiv fur Naturgeschichte, Dr. PfeifFer described, 

 in 1840, a small Helix from Cuba, under the name of saxicola. 

 The year before he had described another under the name of 

 Helix Boothiana, which afterwards became the type of the sub- 

 genus Microphysa. Dr. Amos Binney read his description of 

 Helix minuscula, in November, 1840, but the part of the Journal 

 in which it was printed contains papers which were not read 

 until February, 1841, and was probably published in that year. 

 In 1841 the earlier signatures and plates of d'Orbigny's Mol- 

 lusqnes de Cuba appeared, forming part of Ramon de la Sagra's 

 Historia de Cuba. The whole work was not finished until 1853, 

 but the earlier parts appeared at intervals. In this d'Orbign}' 

 described Helix Lavalleana and H. Mauriniana, but by an acci- 

 dent the numbers of the figures were transposed on the plate. 

 Later Pfeiffer identified his Helix saxicola with H. Lavalleana, 

 d'Oibigny, and his //. Boothiana with H. Mauriniana, though 

 the confusion of the numbers of the figures renders a little study 

 necessary to make this clear. Still later W, Gr. Binney identified 

 his father's H. minuscula with H. Lavalleana as correctly under- 

 stood. Now, two things which are equal to the same thing being 

 equal to each other, it follows that H. minuscula, if the above 

 identifications be correct, is the same as H. saxicola, and synony- 

 mous with it, as saxicola appears to be the older name. Until 

 the identifications arc a little more clearly understood, it will 



