October, 1912. The Irish Nahiralist. 185 



THE TERRESTRIAL MOLLUSCA OF THE GREAT 



BLASKET AND BEGINISH. 



BY A. W. STELFOX. 

 (Plate 3.) 



It is not difficult to imagine a time when the Blaskets 

 formed a portion of the mainland of Kerry. Only two of 

 the islands — The Tearaght and Inishtooskert — lie without 

 the twenty-live fathom line. Numerous small islets or 

 illauns, and reefs exist between the Great Blasket and the 

 coast of the Dingle peninsula opposite. Many of these 

 smaller islets, as well as Beginish, are capped by Glacial 

 drift and it is apparent that the sea is rapidly wearing them 

 away. Even on the Great Blasket considerable wastage 

 appears to be going on, except at the eastern end of the island 

 where blown sand is accumulating. The fauna of the 

 islands will naturally, therefore, be closely related to that 

 of the nearest part of the mainland, unless we are to believe 

 that these western islands are stocked by specimicns carried 

 by chance means from all points of the compass. 



Four days were spent by me on the Great Blasket, in 

 company with Mr. & Mrs. R. Lloyd Praeger in June, 1912, 

 and about two hours on Beginish. Before reaching the 

 islands I made a rough list of species which I expected to 

 find there. In making this I was guided mainly by the 

 lists which have been compiled on the western islands of 

 Galway, Mayo, and Donegal, and that from the adjoining 

 mainland of Kerry, since no information concerning the 

 mollusca of the Blaskets has been published hitherto. This 

 provisional hst contained thirty-six species, two of which 

 were fresh-water species. Of these all but nine were found 

 on the Great Blasket, while five species which I had not 

 counted upon procuring — though none of them caused any 

 great surprise when found — turned up also. 



The nine species looked for and which I could not find 

 were Agrioliniax laevis, Arion circitmscriptus, Zonitoides 

 excavatus, Punctum pygmaemn, Hygromia hispida, Vertigo 

 pygmaea, V. antivertigo, Acicula lineata and Pisidium 

 personatum. Of these Z. excavatus appears to be absent 

 from the extreme west of the Dingle promontory. H. hispida 



