w- 



2IO The Irish Naturalist. October, 



IS HYATJNIA HELVETICA, BEUM FOUND IN 



IRELAND? 



by a. w. stelfox. 



[Plate 15.] 



Ill the year 1S90, Mr. J. G. Milne, in a list of shells collected 

 by him during a tour in Ireland, recorded Zonitcs glaber ( = //. 

 helvetica), from Smithborough in Co. Monaghan.^ 



Then during a period of three years we heard no more of 

 this supposed Irish mollusc, but in the 3'ear 1893 some shells 

 collected by Mr R. A. Phillips at Whitegate in East Cork, and 

 others taken by Dr. Scharff at Bantry in the west division of 

 the same county, were submitted to Prof. Boettger, Dr. 

 Westerlund, and the original desciiber of the species, Herr 

 Blum, all of whom agreed that the Irish shells were Hyalinia 

 helvetica. This at first was taken as final, and Mr. Phillips 

 definitely recorded the species as Irish in 1894.- Subsequently 

 Mr. J. W. Taylor^ has given Hyalinia helvetica as found in 

 no less than six of Watson's divisions of Ireland : viz. Sligo, 

 Monaghan, Kerry, S. Cork, S. Tipperary and Waterford. 



It was only after a couple of 3'ears collecting in the south- 

 eastern counties of England, where Hyalinia helvetica is 

 common, that I began to doubt the Irish records ; and when 

 at the beginning of the present 3'ear I commenced to compile 

 further material for the Irish census, and wrote to Mr. Phillips 

 asking him for specimens, he replied that he then had grave 

 doubts as to the correctness of the identification of his shells, 

 and would send me specimens when time permitted. 



In the meantime I examined those named by Mr. Taylor 

 and collected b}^ Mr. Welch at the Sligo Field Club Conference 

 in 1904, and consider them to be a form of our ordinar}' Irish 

 Hyalinia cella^da. When Mr. Phillips's shells arrived, Mr. 

 Welch and I spent several hours on different occasions com- 

 paring them with specimens of the various species of the genus 

 in our cabinets, and although we could not at first separate 

 some shells from Kilrush, Co. Clare, sent by Mr. Phillips, from 

 some English specimens of Hyalinia helvetica, 3^et we felt 

 quite sure that they were not the same species It was not 

 until I had almost abandoned the task that I found a permanent 

 difference between the two groups of shells. This difference 

 I have since looked for in all specimens of the Hyali7iia cellaiia 

 and H. helvetica groups which have passed through my hands, 

 and I have never found it wanting. 



