I4S 



MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN 



VOL. XIV, 



most familiar representatives are the land-snails and slugs, the 

 former with a typical spiral shell ; the latter have none externally 

 but most of them possess a small internal plate or a few calcareous 

 particles hidden beneath the skin of the back — a vestige of the 

 ancestral shell. 



In Madras Presidency two distinct land-snail areas exist, the 

 one, the dry zone with a pulmonate fauna related to the Central 

 and Northern regions of India ; the other, the wet zone, comprising 

 the whole of the West Coast with the Anamalai, Nilgiri and Palni 

 Hills, has much more intimate connexion with Ceylon ; it is indeed 

 classed as part of the Sinhalese province by faunistic writers. 



There is, however, much overlapping of these two regions and 

 much intermingling of species- For example we are told that 

 the Sinhalese province is characterized by the dominance and 

 abundance of the genus Helix while Ariophanta — which differs 

 from Helix in having a mucous pore at the end of the tail — takes its 



Fig. 34. A common Madras snail {^Ariophanta bntrialis'). X 1. 



place very largely in the Indian province. As a matter of fact the 

 Ariophantas are particularly abundant on the hills named and 

 include the Imperial snail, Ariophanta hasilciis, a magnificient form 

 growing to 2^ inches in diameter, characteristic of the Cochin 

 teak forests (where it is occasionally eaten by the semi-wild tribes 

 who live on forest produce) and found also in the Anamalai and 

 Nelliampathi Hills. Two smaller species are abundant in Madras 

 gardens ; one is the single-banded Ariophanta ligiilata, the other the 

 two-banded Ariop/iai/ta histrialis. Conversely a small dark-banded 



