366 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1899. 



MOEPHOLOGICAL AND SYSTEMATIC NOTES ON SOUTH AMERICAN 

 LAND SNAILS: ACHATINID^. 



BY HENRY' A. PILSBRY' AND EDWARD G. VANATTA. 



Dr. H. von Ihering, director of the Miiseu Paulista, having 

 entrusted to the senior author of this paper a considerable collec- 

 tion of alcoholic preparations of land snails amassed during his 

 residence in Brazil, a beginning of their study is herein made. 



It must be regretted by all that von Ihering, urged by the 

 pressure of official duties, could not himself conduct the investi- 

 gation of this important material; for his large experience with 

 South American forms of life and his genius for dealing with 

 problems of molluscan morj^hology, would have given an especial 

 value to the work. 



Alcoholic specimens of two genera of Achatinidce are present. 

 Neither of them has hitherto been investigated. 



Genus NEOBELISCUS Pilsbry. 

 Nautilus, X, p. 46 (August, 1896). 



Shell solid and strong, large, imperforate, turreted, slowly taper- 

 ing, several earlier whorls rapidly tapering, forming a conic apex. 

 Whorls about 10, similarly sculptured, convex. Aperture irregu- 

 larly ovate, the outer lip unexpanded, acute, columella vertical, 

 foldless, its edge narrowly revolute and adnate throughout. 



Foot very short and broad, squarely truncated behind; with no 

 appearance of grooves or specialized granulation above the mar- 

 gins; sole undivided. 



Genitalia (PI. XV, fig. 5) without accessory organs, the 

 atrium short. ^ system with a long, club-shaped penis with 

 strongly folded internal walls, and terminal retractor muscle and 

 vas deferens. Talon, (fig. 5a, t ) large, consisting of a swollen distal 

 portion on a narrow, devious duct of similar length. 9 system 

 with the vagina rather short, spermatheea oblong, borne on a duct 

 of about double its own length, and remote from the heart. Free 

 oviduct as long as the spermatheea duct. Uterus with thin walls, 



