THE NAUTILUS. 



VOL. XX. JUNE, 1906. No. 2. 



EPIPHRAGMOPHORA KELLETTII (FBS.) AND E. STEARNSIANA (GABB). 



BY GEO. H. CLAPP. 



Recent writers on American conchology have united these two 

 species, the latter as a variety of the former, but a careful study of 

 large series of both shows that Gabb was correct when he identified 

 and named stearnsiana as a distinct species. 



Forbes' original description of Helix kellettii was published in P. 

 Z. 8., 1850, p. 55, and the type is figured on PI. IX, 2a, b. He 

 was, however, badly mixed on his localities as he says : " Of the 

 genus Helix there are nine species. Of these H. toivnsendiana, 

 nuttaHiana and colnmbiana are certainly from the neighborhood of 

 the Columbia river. Helix kettettii and pandorse, botli new, are prob- 

 ably from the same country, though the box in which they were con- 

 tained was marked ' Santa Barbara.' Helix areolata bears no indi- 

 cation of its locality." 



Through the kindly offices of John Ponsonby, Esq., of London, 

 England, I was enabled to enlist the services of Edgar A. Smith, 

 Curator of Conchology, British Museum, and he sent me a colored 

 drawing of the type, which agrees very closely with Forbes' figure, 

 and at the same time he checked up Forbes' measurements and 

 found them correct, but was unable to count 6 whorls, unless any- 

 thing over 5 is called 6. 



"With this as a starting point and a large series of shells from 

 Santa Catalina Is., and the mainland from San Diego to Kosario 

 and Cedros (Cerros) Is., Lower California. I have tried to sepa- 

 rate the two species with the following result: 



