342 A MANUAL OF AMERICAN LAND SHELLS. 



Auiuial with eye-peduncles blackish, their base large and conical ; 

 tentacles under the last white, very small. Head and neck finely mot- 

 tled with black, mantle grayish, foot light saffron -color, a saffron bor- 

 der around the respiratory foramen. A deep furrow running from un- 

 der the anterior part of the mantle, on each side, downward and for- 

 ward, terminating behind the tentacle Length of the animal somewhat 

 more than that of the shell. 



Like the other species, it prefers moist situations, but it is also 

 spread abroad upon the hillsides, as in Vermont, at considerable dis- 

 tances from water. 



When the shell is oval, the last whorl very ample and expanded, 

 forming nine-tenths of the whole volume, and but little oblique, the 

 spire being at the same time very small and not prominent and the 

 aperture oval and well rounded at both extremities, it is the form de- 

 scribed as SuGcinea ovalis by Mr. Say. The variation to which it is 

 most subject is a lengthening and narrowing of all its parts. The 

 spire becomes more produced and its convolutions less close; the last 

 whorl is compressed at the sides and more oblique. The aperture by 

 this process becomes elongated and narrow, and its j)osterior margin 

 more angulated. In this condition it is Succinea ohliqua, Say. The ex- 

 tremes of the two varieties differ much from each other, yet they are 

 blended together by almost inappreciable degrees of variation, and 

 we have never met with specimens in the Northern States which could 

 not be referred to one or the other of these varieties. 



Jaw of shaiDe usual in the genus, with the quadrate accessory plate. 

 Cutting edge with a i^rominent median projection. Anterior surface 

 with decided stout ribs, deuticulating the cutting edge; one si)ecimen 

 had three broad and two intervening narrow ribs ; another specimen 

 has seven ribs. 



Lingual membrane (Terr. Moll., V, Plate X, Fig. P) long and nar- 

 row. Teeth about 43-1-43. Centrals subquadrate, tricuspid, the mid- 

 dle cusp long and stout. Laterals about 10, longer than wide, bicus- 

 pid, the third inner cusp being only rudimentary. Marginals a modifi- 

 cation of the laterals, with one long, slender inner cusp and two short, 

 slender outer cusps. The cusps of all the teeth bear shari) cutting- 

 points. 



In Terr. Moll., I, Plate XIII, Fig. 3, a jaw is figured as that of 

 Succinea ovalis. It no doubt represents rather that of the true ohliqua, 

 Say, than that of S. ovalis, Gld., not Say. The jaw of the latter is 



