ORTHALICUS. 409 



Bulimus reses, Say, New Harm. Diss., Dec. 30, 1830 ; Binney's ed., p. 39. 

 Agatina fuscata, Rafinesque, Enum. and Ace, p. 3 (1831) ; Binney's and 

 Tryon's complete edition, 68. 



Animal thick and massive, dirty or yellowish white, darker on the middle 

 of the back ; surface rugose, with prominent, oblong glands, and deep furrows. 

 Whole length, exclusive of eye-peduncles, three inches. Eye-peduncles, when 

 fully extended, one inch long, bulbous, with small, black, ocular points ; tenta- 

 cles one fifth of an inch long, slender. Ori6ce of generation behind the eye- 

 peduncle on the right side. Mantle somewhat bilobed, protruding beyond the 

 aperture, and slightly reflected. Posterior extremity rounded, sides corru- 

 gated, lower surface smooth, squalid. Eggs moderate, oblong-subrotund, with 

 a granulately roughened, thick, calcareous covering. 



Found in Jamaica and Cuba, and at Key West ; also in Mexico. The speci- 

 mens figured in the Terrestrial Mollusks were received from the southern part 

 of the peninsula of Florida, in the Miami country, and from Key West to Key 

 Biscayne. It has been referred also to Louisiana and Texas, but I have never 

 heard of its presence there being well authenticated. It is difficult to explain 

 its distribution except by supposing it to have been a widely distributed species 

 of some extinct fauna which has survived at various points around the Gulf 

 of Mexico. 



This species inhabits trees. It attaches itself to the tree during hibernation, 

 and covers its aperture by an opaque, inspissated, glutinous secretion, which, 

 though exposed to wind and rain, forms a perfect adhesion and protection to 

 the animal, and only yields to its own solvent powers on the approach of 

 spring. It exists in great numbers ; and the dead shells are a favorite habita- 

 tion of a species of hermit crab. 



The figure of the animal of Orlhalicus, given on p. 406, is reduced from a 

 drawing prepared for the Terrestrial Mollusks, but not there figured. On 

 PI. LXXVIL, Fig. 13, of Vol. IV. I have given another view of the same 

 shell, also prepared for publication in the Terrestrial Mollusks. I am not 

 certain from what locality the shell was received, but from the fact of Dr. 

 Binney describing in his work no shells but what he knew to exist in the 

 United States, I am inclined to believe he received it from Florida. His col- 

 lector would be more likely to furnish him with a living specimen from that 

 point, than he to receive it from some Mexican or South American locality. 

 I do not know to which species it may be referred, but presume it to be B. 

 undatus. He thus describes it : — 



" The most beautiful form of the species is that figured in PI. LIV. a. It 

 is quite thick and ponderous ; its general color is deep brownish, variegated 

 with undulating intervals of white on the spire, and others more obscure on the 

 columellar side of the body-whorl. On the side opposite to the aperture, the 

 brown color is relieved only by three indistinct and ill-defined dark bands, 

 and by the black line showing the margin of a former peristome. The colu- 



