BOSTON 



JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



VoL.IV. SEPTEMBER, 1842. No. 2. 



Art. XIIL— descriptions OF SOME OF THE SPECIES OF 

 NAKED, AIR-BREATHING MOLLUSCA, INHABITING THE 

 UNITED STATES. By Aaios Binney. (Read Dec. 1841.) 



Very little attention has hitherto been given in the United 

 States, to the animals belonging to the family of Limacidae, 

 or Slugs, The only paper on the subject which I have met 

 with, is one pubhshed at Philadelphia by the late M. Rafi- 

 nesque, in the Annals of Nature for 1820, a periodical work 

 projected by him, but which never extended beyond the 

 specimen number. In this paper M. Rafinesque, with his 

 usual dexterity in proposing new genera and species, gives the 

 characters of two genera and six species, from animals noticed 

 by him in various parts of the country, but not since recog- 

 nised by other naturalists. One of his genera, however, 

 which, under the name of Philomycus, he intended should 

 embrace those species which are entirely destitute of a man- 

 tle, and which cannot be included in the genus Limax, as 

 hitherto defined, and may with propriety and convenience be 

 retained, has been adopted by M. Ferussac. It will be 

 necessary, for the same reason, to establish another genus for 

 the reception of those species in which the mantle covers the 

 whole superior surface of the body, but which are excluded 

 from all the accepted genera. I propose to designate this 



