GONIOBASIS. 259 



texture light ; whorls about eight, upper ones nearly flat, the last is 

 usually slightly constricted beneath the suture, and beneath this 

 stricture on the periphery of the last whorl revolve one or two 

 broad bands of yellowish-green ; sutures impressed, and of paler 

 color than the rest of the shell ; aperture small, pyriform, and in- 

 wardly ornamented with alternate bands of a dark ruby color and 

 translucent white, which render this part of the shell peculiarly 

 lively and beautiful; outer lip sinuate; columella dark brown, arcu- 

 ate, and produced into a distinct sinus. 



Habitat. — Congress and Springfield Lakes, Stark County, Ohio. 



Diameter, -28 (7 millim.); length, '"o of an inch (19 millira.). 

 Length of aperture, '25 (G millim.); breadth of aperture, -17 of au 

 inch (5 millim.). 



Observations. — This is a very distinct and beautiful species, remark- 

 able for its long, slender form, its polished surface, and for a profound 

 stricture on the body- whorl of many of the specimens, though 

 this last character is not always present ; when it is present 

 it furnishes a mark by which this species can be readily distin- 

 guished from anj' other. It is seldom that any of our Melania: 

 are found inhabiting waters so still as those of the small lakes 

 so numerous in Stark and the neighboring counties in Ohio; 

 nearly all the family are denizens of rapid streams abounding with 

 rocks, to which they adhere, often in great numbers. Occasionally, 

 however, they attach themselves to the dead bivalve shells which 

 pave many of the rivers in our Southern and Westei'u States, or cling 

 to the long grass which grows in them. This species was first pub- 

 lished on the cover of Haldeman's Monograph of the Fresh-water 

 Shells of North America, No. 4, December 28, 1841, A short time 

 previous Mr. Lea had published a species from Tennessee under the 

 same name, which publication I had not then seen. It becomes ex- 

 pedient, therefore, to change its name to one not preoccupied, and I 

 propose in redescribing the species to confer upon it that of gracilior, 

 which seems even more appropriate than the name originally given to 

 it. — Anthony, 



