TASMANIAN LAND SHELLS. 



6. — Helix ( ) ruga — Cox. 



Legrand, Col for Mon., sp. 24, pi. i,, fig, 5. 

 H. Margatensls — Cox. 



Legrand, Col. for Mon., sp. 54. 



Shell with a large perspective umbilicus, equalling one quarter of 

 the diameter of the shell ; depiessed, rather thin, horny yellow or some- 

 times dark olive, shining below ; whorls 4|, quickly increasing, regularly 

 striated above with coarse rib-like strise ; smooth below, last whorl much 

 dilated and slightly depressed near the mouth, which is ovately lunate ; 

 peristome thin and simple, with approximating margins ; columellar 

 margin not dilated. 



Variety a. — Paler, greenish-yellow. 

 Variety h. — Dark, brownish-red. 



Diameter, gi^eatest 37, least 0*31 ; height, 0'12 of an inch. 



Habitat. — Foot of Mount Wellington, Mount Nelson, Prosser's 

 Plains, Sorell, Circular Head, Eiver Leven, Quamby 

 Bluff, Launceston, East Coast, Recherche Bay, Emu 

 Bay, Flinders Island, and also Victoria, Australia. 



The above is the description verbatim of the typical form from near 

 Hobart Town j but as may be imagined from a shell having such a wide 

 rans:e, in fact almost general distribution over the island, the variations 



Til 



caused by more or less congenial situations are very great, it has, how- 

 ever, several common characters that are constant, and by which it may 

 be easily known — notably its smooth base, which is invariably much 

 more polished than the upper surface ; its depressed form, and the regu- 

 larly coarsely striated upper portion of the shell. It varies in colour 

 from light yellowish-green to a dark rusty-brown, and is often striated 

 in'egularl;y with a darker shade. In size it also varies : many of those 

 collected by me around Launceston are fully as large as the next 

 species (?), H. qumstiosa. It is generally found in dry localities, and but 

 seldom met with in moist situations. It may be distinguished from H. 

 Sinclairi by its want of the peculiar markings of that species, and the 

 scarcely perceptible deflection in the ujDper portion of the aperture, a 

 character so persistent in H. Sinclairi, and from H. Stephensi and allies, 

 by its thicker texture and sculpture generally. There are several allied 

 forms in Australia, and specimens from the Dandenong Range, Victoria, 

 are identical with those from the northern portion of this island. The 

 examples from Flinders Island, Bass Straits, are small, not quite so 

 high as the typical, and of a pale greenish-yellow colour throughout ; they 

 were found on the sand dunes in company with Vitrina Verreauxi and a 

 variety of H. Macdonaldi. The specimen named by Cox as H. Mar- 

 gatensis is but a pale variety. The arrangement of the teeth on the 

 lingual membrane resembles that of If. lamp^a and H. Sinclairi. 



