ON AFRODONTA MELV. AND PONS. 338 



On Afrodonta Melv. and Pons., with Descriptions 

 of New Species. 



By 



Honry C'lifden Biiriiiip. 



With Plate XXIV. 



In the year 1908 Messrs. Melvill and Ponsonby ^ founded 

 the genus Afrodonta, of the family Endodontid^e, for 

 receiving the new species bilamellaris M. & P. and 

 trilamellaris M. & P. Subsequently Mr. Henry Suter 

 Avrote to Mr. Ponsonby pointing out the insufficiency of 

 distinct generic characters to support such an arrangement, 

 and suggesting the inclusion of these species in Thauma- 

 todon Pilshry, a section of the sub-genus Endodonta 

 Alhers, of the genus Endodonta Alhers, to which the new 

 forms seem intimately related. 



Further correspondence between these gentlemen and 

 myself ensued, in which the convenience of having a distinct 

 group for the African forms was borne well in mind, and it 

 was ultimately decided to be desirable to disrate Afrodonta 

 from generic to sectional rank, parallel to Helen oconcha 

 Pils., etc., and near to Thaumatodon. The species, as far 

 as is yet known, are confined to South Africa, and are 

 probably separable from Thaumatodon by their generally 

 smaller size, finer sculpture, and more transparent shell. 



Lt.-Col. H. H. Godwin-Austen, who examined the ana- 

 ' 'Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.,' ser. 8, vol. i (1908), p. 133. 

 VOL, 2, PART 3. 23 



