The Nautilus 
VOL. VIII. 
OCTOBER, 1894. 
No. 6 
THE AMERICAN SPECIES OF CARYCHIUM. 
BY HENRY A. PILSBRY. 
The genus Carychium contains some of the smallest land mollusks 
known. The shell is cylindrical or high conical like that of Pvpa, 
but the lack of eye-stalks and the form of the lingual teeth show the 
genus to belong to the family Auriculidte, a group best known in 
America by the salt-marsh inhabiting Melampus. The species of 
Carychium, like other Auriculidse, are terrestrial in habit, living 
among damp leaves or wood. The genus contains about 15 recent 
species, distributed over nearly the whole northern hemisphere. 
In The Nautilus for 1891, vol. iv, p. 109, the writer gave a brief 
notice of the United States forms of the genus. Subsequent study 
resulted in a synopsis of the group, which was published in Proc. 
Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1891, p. 318, with plate xiv. With a view of 
enlisting the services of conchologists in the needed examination of 
more material from various parts of the country, this synopsis is 
here reprinted. Information is needed to establish the range of the 
various forms, particularly in the West and South, and also the 
variations of the several forms. Only the collection of specimens 
from points geographically intermediate between the extremes of the 
range of this genus, and the examination of such material by a 
competent person, can finally decide the question of the number of 
naturally defined species, and which, if any of them, must be con¬ 
sidered geographic races or sub-species. 
