89 



The specimens from which the above characters have been taken 

 appear to give the most perfectly regular form of the species. There 

 are other varieties from Payta and the Isle of Muerte. — G. B. S. 



A coUection of land and fresh-water SheUs, formed in the Gangetic 

 Provinces of India by W. H. Benson, Esq., of the Bengal Civil 

 Service, and presented by that gentleman to the Society, was ex- 

 hibited. It comprised forty species, and -vvas accompanied by a de- 

 seriptive list prepared by the donor, and also by detailed notices of 

 some of the more interesting among them. These notices were 

 read : they are intended by Mr. Benson for publication in the forth- 

 coming No. of the ' Zoological Journal.' 



From the time that he first became acąuainted -vpith the animal of 

 a Shell resembling in all respects, except in its superior size, the 

 European Helix lucida, Drap., Mr. Benson regarded it as the type 

 of a new genus of HelicidcB intermediate between Stenopus, Guild., 

 and Helicolimax, Fėr. He had prepared a paper on this genus, for 

 which he intended to propose the name of Tanychlamys ; he finds, 

 however, that Mr. Gray has recently described (page 58) the šame 

 genus under the name of Nanina. The generic characters observed 

 by Mr. Benson are as follows : 



Nanina, Gray. 



Tips^a heliciformis, umbilicata; peritremate acuto, non refiexo. 



Animal eito repens. Corpus reticulosum, elongatum. Pallium 

 amplum, foramine communi magno perforatum, peritrema amplex- 

 ans ; processubus duobus transversė rugosis (quasi articulatis) 

 omni latere mobilibus instructum, unico prope testse aperturae 

 angulum superiorem exoriente, altero apud peripheriam testse. 

 Os anticum inter tentacula inferiora hians ; labia radiato-plicata. 

 Tentacula saperiora elongata, punctum percipiens tumore oblongo 

 situm gerentia. Penis prsegrandis ; antrum cervicis elongatum la- 

 tere dextro et prope tentacula situm. Solea complanata pedis latera 

 seąuans. Cauda tentaculata ; tentaculum subretractile, glandulsl ad 

 basin positS, humorem yiscidum (animale attrectato) exsudante. 



Mr. Benson describes particularly the habits of the species ob- 

 served by him, -vphich he first discovered living at Banda in Bundel- 

 kund on the prone surface of a rock. The animal carries the shell 

 horizontally or nearly so ; is quick in its motions ; and, likę Heli- 

 colimux, it cravv^ls the faster \?hen disturbed, instead of retracting its 

 tentacula likę the Snails in general. In damp vv^eather it is rarely re- 

 tracted -vvithin its shell, the foot being so much svrelled by the ab- 

 sorption of moisture that if it is suddenly thrown intp boiling water 

 the attempt to withdraw into the shell invariably causes a fracture 

 of the aperture. In dry weather the foot is retracted, and the aper- 

 ture is then covered by a ■vvhitish falše operculum similar to that of 

 other Helicidce. The two elongated processes of the mantle are con- 



