54 



HABITS OF CARNIVOROUS SNAILS AND SLUGS chap. 



islands of Georgia and around the keys and everglades of Florida, 

 where it attains a maximum length of 4 inches, while in less 

 humid situations it scarcely measures more than 1 inch. It 

 occurs most abundantly in the centre of clumps and tussocks of 

 coarse grass in marshes close to the sea-coast. By the action of 

 the sharp, sickle-shaped teeth of its radula the soft parts of its 

 prey (which consists chiefly of living Helices) are rapidly rasped 

 away ; sometimes they are swallowed whole. It has been known 

 to attack Limax when confined in the same box, rasping off large 

 pieces of the integument. In one case an individual was noticed 

 to devour one of its own species, thrusting its long neck into the 

 interior of the shell, and removing all the viscera. 



Fig. 21. — Glandina sowerhyana Pfr. (Strebel). 



The Glandinae of southern Europe, although scarcely rival- 

 ling those of Central America in size or beauty, possess similar 

 carnivorous propensities. G-landina Poireti has been observed,^ 

 on Veglia Island, attacking a living Cyclostoma elegans. By its 

 powerful teeth it filed through two or three whorls of the shell 

 of its victim, and then proceeded to devour it, exactly in the 

 same manner as a Natica or Buccinum perforates the shell of a 

 Tellina or Mactra in order to get at its contents. 



Few observations appear to have been made on the habits or 

 food of Streptaxis, Rhytida^ Ennea^ Daudehardia^ Paryphanta^ 

 and other carnivorous Mollusca. A specimen of Ennea sulcata^ 

 enclosed in the same box as a Madagascar Helix (^sepulchralis 

 F^r.) many times its own size, completely emptied the shell of 

 its inhabitant.^ Mr. E. L. Layard informs me that certain Cape 

 Mhytida, e.g. R. capsula Bens., R. dumeticola Bens., and R. 

 vernicosa Kr., eat Cyclostoma affine., Helix capensis^ H. cotyle- 

 donis^ etc. To Mr. Layard I am also indebted for the — perhaps 

 apocryphal — tradition that the best time to capture the great 



1 Erjavec, Nachr. Deutsch. Malak. Gesell. 1885, p. 88. 



2 Crosse, Journ. de Conch. (3) xiv. (1874) p. 223. 



