HOLLUSCA OF IXDFA. 221 



Genus SoPHiNA, Benson. 



(Plate CXV. figs. 5,5a; Plate CXVI. fig. 3.) 



Sophina, Benson, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1859, ser. 3, vol. iii 

 p. 473. 



Type Helix caTias, Benson. 



Original description :— " Testa Naninoidea ; columella callosa, 

 decUvis, cum margine basali angulum efformans, augulo, nonnunquam 

 rimato, carinam, plus minusve acutam, umbilicalem emittente." 



After describing H. calias, Mr. Benson writes : — " Less than a 

 month had elapsed from the date of my paper announcing the 

 peculiar formation of the columellar lip and umbilicus in the Tenas- 

 serim H. fombilii^, B., when this shell reached me by the overland 

 route, presenting, with a very different form, the same characteristic 

 pillar lip and horizontal spiral keel at the umbilicus, on which 1 had 

 so confidently relied for the future recognition of that species when 

 it might be met with in a more perfect condition. The shell next 

 to be described [//. schistostelis] offers a still more exaggerated deve- 

 lopment of the same type at the basal angle ; and, taken together, 

 these shells may jirstly be regarded as types of a peculiar Southern 

 Burmese section of the Naninoid group." 



In the ' Annals & Magazine of Natural History ' for January, 

 1860, Benson gives amended characters of the genus Sopliina and 

 of the species calias and forahilis : from certain shell-characters he 

 was at that time inclined to consider it Helicidous in character, 

 but as the animal was unknown it was only a matter of conjecture. 

 He concludes the paper by pointing out the limited area of the dis- 

 tribution of the three species he had then described, and I quote 

 his last few lines, which are almost as applicable to-day as they 

 were in 1859-60 :— " It appears to be scarcely within the bounds 

 of probability that a form so peculiar should be confined to the 

 limited tract [that is, the limestone hills of Moulmein] in which it 

 has hitherto been collected. Species may have been overlooked, or 

 regarded by persons unacquainted with the subject as merely 

 broken shells, both in the Malay Peninsula and in Siam,— possibly 

 even in Cochin China. Other unusual Tenasserim types have 

 occurred in the two countries last named." 



It was not until 1869 that Ferdinand Stoliczka visited Moulmein, 

 and collected the living animals oi SopUna and other species, which 

 was followed by his excellent paper entitled " Notes on Terrestrial 

 Mollusca from the Neighbourhood of Moulmein (Tenasserim Pro- 

 vinces), with Descriptions of New Species," Journ. Asiat Soc 

 Bengal, 1871, p. 143. 



Ou pages 252-255 Stoliczka gives an excellent account of the 

 animal and all its parts, which cannot be added to, and this I shall 

 largely make extracts from. 



Among a collection of shells preserved in spirit made by and 

 made over to me by Mr. Theobald, I find a species which 1 have 

 dctermiued as ,S'. calias, from Mergui, which lies some 275 miles 



