iQiS. Jackson. — Limnaea glabra in Ireland ? 77 



LIMNAEA GLABRA IN IRELAND? 



BY J. WILFRID JACKSON, F.G.S. 

 Hon. Secretary, Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 



The occurrence of Limnaea glabra in Ireland is a matter of 

 some dispute among conchologists. A. W. Stelfox, in his 

 " List of the Land and Freshwater Molhisks of Ireland " 

 (Proc. R. I. Acad., xxix., 1911, pp. 65-164), says : " There 

 are several old records for this shell — Cork, Dublin, and 

 Belfast — but no specimens are forthcoming " {op. cit., 

 p. 129). It has been suggested that the " Limnetis glaber " 

 of these early records (of Thompson, Humphreys, and 

 others) is perhaps the young of a slender form of L. pahi^stris 

 found living in marshes and known to occur in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Cork and Belfast (Stelfox, op. ciL, p. 112). It 

 is of some interest, therefore, to record that undoubted 

 examples of L. glabra from Cork exist in a collection of 

 British Shells formed by the late Lord de Tabley. This 

 collection was acquired after his death (c. 1895) by Mrs. 

 Gresham, of Knutsford, and has recently been presented 

 to the Manchester Museum. It would appear that Lord de 

 Tabley, at one time, had the intention of publishing a work 

 on " British Mollusca." 



The De Tabley specimens of L. glabra, like most of the 

 other species, are in small pill-boxes, with the name and 

 locality — Cork — written on the lid. They are quite unlike 

 any variety of L. palustris known to me. The largest 

 example measures 16 x 5,5 mm., and all the shells agree 

 closely with English specimens of L. glabra. 



Other Irish shells contained in the De Tabley collection 

 are L. involula ; L. tnmcahila (Limerick) ; and Succinca 

 oblonga (Cork). There are no other examples of L. glabra in 

 the collection. 



Manchester Museum, 



