SAINT HELENA. 533 



state ; and in those instances where they have been found only 

 subfossilized, tinder tuhich circumstances tJiey must he looked 

 t(,pon as extinct (at any rate until proved to the contrary), the 

 names have been printed likewise in italics. 



Fam.l. LIMACID^. 



Gfenus 1. LIMAX, Linne. 



Limax gagates. 



Liraax gagates, Drap., Hist. Nat. 122. pi. 9. f. 1, 2 (1805) 

 „ „ Loive, ProG. Zool. Soc. Lond. 162 (1854) 



„ „ Alh., Mai. Mad. 12. t. 1. f. 3-5 (1854) 



„ „ Morel, Hist. Nat. des Agor. 139 (1860) 



„ „ Paiva, Mon. Moll. Mad. 3 (1867) 



„ „ Melliss, St. Hel. 118 (1875) 



Habitat in intermediis Sanctae Helense ; forsan ex Europa 

 una cum plantis olim introductus. 



Although I frequently observed a Limnax during our six 

 months' residence at Plantation, I had nevertheless so little 

 leisure to devote to the Mollusca (my time having been fully 

 taken up with the Insects) that I unfortunately omitted to iden- 

 tify the species critically. As Mr. Melliss however has cited 

 the European L. gagates in his late volume on St. Helena, and 

 he could scarcely have been mistaken in the determination of 

 so common and well-marked a slug, I have little doubt that the 

 one which occurred to us at Plantation and elsewhere was that 

 species ; though even if it is not, I have still no reason to sus- 

 pect that Mr. Melliss's recognition of the L. gagates., as having 

 been found in the island, is anything but strictly accurate. 



The not very large size (for a slug) of the L. gagates (its 

 average length being from about three-quarters of an inch to an 

 inch), added to its more or less darkened upper surface (which 

 is either brownish-black, cinereous-black, or ochreous-black, sel- 

 dom black entirely), and the acute keel which extends down the 

 dorsal line of its longitudinally-sulcated body, from the hinder 

 edge of the shield to the extreme tip, will suffice to distin- 

 guish it.' 



' Having admitted the L. gagates into tlie St. Helena catalogue without 

 personally identifying it, I cannot venture to make any further entry of slugs 

 without at any rate good evidence for so doing. I mention this because 

 Mr. Melliss indicates, as just stated, no less than two other species of Limax, 

 without however assigning to either of them a name, or (in lieu of that) even a 

 few words of diagnosis ; and I have'often experienced'how easy it is to be mis- 

 taken as regards the specific claims of (more particularly) the early states of 

 these variable slugs. Without, therefore, thinking it at all improbable that 

 another, or even two other members, of the present genus may be ascertained 

 to occur in the island, I cannot consider that it would be safe at present tq 

 register more than the L. gagates. 



