332 LAND AND FRESHWA'IEK 



Family CYCLOPOIIHID^. 



Subfamily Altc^in-s;. 



Genus Alyc^its. 



(Continued from Vol. II. Part YIT. p. 5.) 



In Vol. I. pt. V. p. 186 (1886) I gave a short outline of the 

 classification of the subfamily Ah/cceince. It now requires ampli- 

 fication, for in the 28 years that have elapsed the number of 

 kuovs^n species has very greatly increased. It was my hope then 

 to figure the greater number in British India and its frontier-lands. 

 This happily I have nearly accomplished. I have had a magnificent 

 series of the genus to study, for it has been constantly before me 

 when cataloguing for the Natural Histor}- Museum the species of 

 Al3-c£ei in the lilanford Collection and in my own. I have been 

 afforded the opportunity of seeing all the rare types and un- 

 described species in the former, and in the latter tubes and boxes 

 came to hand which had only been very hastily examined at the 

 time their contents were handed to me daily by my native collectors. 

 I must here record and acknowledge with thanks the assistance 

 I have received from Mr. E. A. Smith, of the British Museum, in 

 seeing all the Alyciei in that collection, and included in it were a 

 good many received from Mr. Theobald. My best thanks are also 

 due to Dr. N. Annaudale, who, on application to him, sent home 

 from the Indian Museum, Calcutta, all the species I wished to see. 

 These included all that had been recorded by Geoffrey Nevill in 

 his Hand-list (1878) ; several of these Avere unnamed and new. 



Finally, in the past year or so, I have had the good fortune to 

 go over the collection of Indian Mollusca brought together by 

 Colonel R. H. Boddome, when selecting species which his widow so 

 liberally presented to the Natural History Museum. Among these 

 were many interesting and typical examples of Al)jcceus. 



The briniring together of so much material — the habitat of the 

 specimens with lew exceptions being undoubted — has led to a far 

 better knowledge of the genus and the limits of the species, an 

 exactitude in distribution seldom obtainable. This has, however, 

 increased the difficulty of forming subgeneric groups, such as the 

 seven sections proposed by Blani'ord in 1864. 



The grouping of the genus Ahjcoius was first attempted by 

 Benson in 185U. There were then known to him only 20 species. 

 He was followed by W. T. Blanford (1864) with 37 species. Next, 

 in 1875, Pfeiffer, and more recently (1897) Von MollendoriT and 

 Kobelt gave their list, much increased in number to 137, of which 

 64 are species recorded from British India. 



