LAND AND FRESHWATER MOLLUSCA 
OF 
| as eal a de ee 
Part VI.—APRIL 1888. 
(Plates LII.-LXII.—-September 1887.) 
INTRODUCTION. 
In this Part I take up again the genus Macrochlamys, figuring 
some small species of the J. petasus type, and a very diverse group 
from the Kashmir and Punjab mountain area, represented by M. 
fleminyt. Gray’s genus Girasia next follows, and the very closely 
related subgenus Austenia, which I commenced in Part LY. p. 148, 
is continued. 
The slug-like snails of Southern India will be found of extreme 
interest, and are included in Africarion, while there is also a re- 
markable new subgenus of Grasia, which I name Dexnanta. 
Through the kindness of Mr. J. B. N. Hennessey, of the Indian 
Survey Department, I am enabled to clear up the position of a 
species which had hitherto been uncertain, viz. Bensonia labiata of 
Pfeiffer (Helia monticola of Hutton); it is, I find, so close in its 
characters to the genus Owytes that I consider Bensonia a good 
subgenus. ‘he characters, as regards the animal, that differ much 
are the odontophore and form of the mucous gland, but the shell is 
very different to typical Oxytes of the Eastern Himalayan and Assam 
ranges. We thus have three divergent characters. When we re- 
member the scores of molluscan genera founded on no other character 
than that of the shell, then for those conchologists who support the 
system of subgenera, Bensonia can stand as a subgenus of Oxytes and 
its Western Himalayan representative ; and I adopt this view instead 
of suppressing it. The more perfect we can build up our necessarily 
artificial classification of the animal kingdom the better; and with 
this end in view I consider the forming of subgenera a most 
valuable aid as well as the adoption of named varieties or sub- 
species, it matters little what we call them, and it is only carrying 
the system a step further. It may not be so essential, or even 
PART VI. U 
[ Plates published September 1887. | 
