ACHAT1NA. 131 



Acicula efiurnea, Risso, Hist. Nat. Europe Mer. vol. iv. p. 81. 



Cionclla acicula, Jeffreys, Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xvi. p. 3 J!!. 



Columna „ Jan, Catal. p. 4. 



Styhidis „ Fitzinger, Syst. Vers, p. 105. 



Acicula „ Beck, Index Moll. Mus. Christ. Frid. p. 79. 



Polyphemus „ Villa, Disp. Syst. p. 20. — Graells, Cat. Moluscos Ter. p. 7. 



Cecilioides „ Beck, Amtl. Ber. Vers in Kiel (1 846), p. 1 22. 



Shell small, slender, turreted-cylindraceous, being a 

 little attenuated below, and gradually tapering above to a 

 very blunt and rounded apex ; uniform white, perfectly 

 smooth and shining, very fragile. Whorls six, merely 

 convex, often indeed but slightly so, being more or less 

 flattened in the middle, of rather irregular increase, the 

 apical coil being somewhat bulbiform, and the penult 

 volution abruptly elongated. Body filling two-fifths of 

 the dorsal length ; its basal declination rounded, but not 

 sudden. Suture simple, profound, moderately slanting, 

 often appearing marginated, from the transparency of the 

 shell. Mouth lanceolate, devoid of sculpture, not filling 

 two-fifths of the ventral length. Outer lip simple, acute, 

 not prominent, arcuated below, barely convex above. 

 Pillar curved, narrowly truncated at the extremity ; the 

 lip appressly reflected: no vestige of an umbilicus. Length 

 a fifth of an inch, nearly quadruple its breadth. 



The animal is white ; its foot is acute behind. The 

 upper tentacula are said to be deprived of eyes. 



This pretty but minute mollusk lives at the roots of 

 grass, and apparently prefers moist places, though the 

 dead shells are found in many localities rather plenti- 

 fully ; living specimens are comparatively rarely to be met 

 with. In many places, where it is plentiful, it must be 

 regarded as subfossil, and like Succinea oblonga appears 

 to have abounded in Britain, towards and after the close 

 of the tertiary epoch. It is distributed at present, though 



