SAINT HELENA. 557 



Unfortunately the distinctions between the Succineas, in most 

 parts of the world, are often so trifling that, unless we are pre- 

 pared to make a tabula rasa of an overwhelming- proportion of 

 them, we have practically no choice left but to acknowledge, as 

 specific, characters which would be utterly valueless in other 

 departments of the Helicidce ; and, in the present instance, whe- 

 ther I am right or wrong in recording the S. picta as a true 

 species ( — a point which perhaps can never absolutely be set- 

 tled), it will be admitted at any rate to be a distinguishable 

 fovm, and one which, as such, ought not to be entirely ignored. 

 My own unbiassed judgment would probably lead me to cite it 

 as a mere local aspect of the 8. Sanctm-HeleTiw ; but since I 

 take it to be the particular shell which PfeifFer had in view as 

 the ' S. picta ' (concerning which he adds ' Habitat Diana's 

 Peak ins. St. Helense '), and Mr. Melliss as the '■ 8. rudorina,'' I 

 prefer to give it the advantage of the doubt and to register it 

 as separate. • 



As regards mere length, the 8. picta does not differ appre- 

 ciably from the Sanctce-Hele^ice, the larger example measuring 

 as much as 7^ or even 8 lines ; but when viewed en masse, it 

 will be seen to be just perceptibly narrower in outline, its basal 

 volution being a trifle less inflated (or more laterally compressed) 

 in front ; and its spire, although small, is longer and more de- 

 veloped. Its aperture, too, is, in proportion, slightly more 

 elongated and obliquely produced ; its surface, which is perhaps 

 somewhat more evenly striate, has indications of a few obsolete, 

 fragmentary, remote, bro ken-up spiral lines or impressions ; and 

 its colour is usually of the dark reddish corneous-brown which 

 characterises the less pallid state of the 8anctce-Helence. 



Succinea Bensoniana. 



Succinea Bensoniana, Forbes, Journ. Zool. 8oc. viii. 198. 

 t. 5. f. 7 (1852) 

 „ asperula, Pfeif., Proc. Zool. 8oc. Lond. 326 



(i856) 

 „ „ Id., Mon. Hel. iv. 812 (1859) 



„ Bensoniana, Id., ibid. 818 (1859) 



„ asperula, Melliss, St. Hel. 119 (1875) 



„ picta, Id. [nee Pfeiff.'], ibid. 119 (1875) 



„ helense. Id. [nee Forbes], ibid. 119 (1875) 



„ solidula. Id. [nee Pfeiff.'], ibid. 119 (1875) 



' Mr. Melliss, however, clearly made some mistake in referring it to the 

 S. rudorina of ' Gould,' — for I cannot perceive that Gould ever pizblished a 

 Succinea under that title. He has a ' S. imdorina.,'' but that is not a St. 

 Helena shell at all, but one which occurs in the Sandwich Islands. 



