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GEOMALACUS MACULOSUS. 259 
in the earth or flattening their bodies and penetrating deep down into the 
deep and narrow rock-crevices, where they hide during the day. 
In captivity, they are described as very sluggish, and as lying for 
days without movement, but they feed freely on bread, carrot, cabbage, 
dandelion, cucumber, and lettuce, but are also carnivorous, and even 
predacious, having been noticed to devour the animals of Vitrinw pellucida 
and other species contamed in the same receptacle. Dr. Scharff has 
verified by microscopical examinations of the contents of their stomach 
that naturally their food is probably restricted to the various lichens and 
liverworts, one of the most abundant species in the locality frequented by 
the slug being Frullania dilatata, but in captivity they readily feed upon 
the lichen Cladonia fimbriata. 
Variation.—The variation of this species is due to the true ground 
colour varying from yellow to white, and also to the degree to which it is 
overspread by a darker shade, which may vary from pale-grey or greenish- 
grey to almost uniform jet-black specimens, such as those found plentifully 
by Mr. A. W. Stelfox on a grassy bank by the roadside on the often 
cloud-capped Iill near Glengariff. The paler varieties, according to the 
careful observations of Mr. R. Welch, are more frequent upon the some- 
what dry walls bounding the roadside, while the blacker forms were more 
plentiful on or near the damp rock surfaces. ‘I'he variation of the ground 
colour from white to yellow gives, as a consequence, a stronger yellow 
staining to the dermal-slime. 
VARIATIONS IN COLOUR AND MARKINGS OF ANIMAL. 
Var. allmani Heynemann, Mal. BI., 1873, p. 28, pl. 1. 
Geomalacus maculosus var. allmant Heynemann, op. cit. 
ANIMAL dark brown or blackish-grey, with whitish maculations. 
IRELAND. 
Cork S.—Glengariff (Stubbs and Adams, Irish Nat., Nov. 1898, p. 261). 
Kerry—T wo or three on the trunk of a tree, in company with Limae arborum 
var. bettonii, north of Lough Caragh, June 1904! W. West. An island in Dingle 
Bay, W. Andrews (specimens in Coll., Brit. Mus.). Abundant on damp roeks and 
along the peat margins close to rocks by Lower Cloonee Lake, July 1898, R. Welch. 
Var. verkruzeni Heynemann, Mal. BI., 1873, p. 31. 
Geomalacus maculosus var. verkruzent Heynemann, op. cit. 
ANIMAL grey, darker dorsally, with white maculations. 
; IRELAND. 
Kerry—Lough Caragh (Heynemann, op. cit.). 
CONTINENTAL DISTRIBUTION. 
Portugal—Simroth refers to var. verkruzeni, a specimen from Las Caldas de 
Gerez, in the province of Minho, described as pale-grey, toning to olive-green, with 
yellowish-white fleckings. 
Var. andrewsi Mabille, Rev. et Mag. Zool., 1867, p. 57. 
Geomalacus andrewsi Mabille, op. cit. 
ANIMAL whitish, overspread with blackish spots. 
This variety, named by Mabille, was originally based on a misapprehension of 
the description of the English authors; we have, however, Dr. Jeffreys authority 
for the actual occurrence of whitish specimens with black spots. 
IRELAND. 
Kerry—Rocks alone shores of Loueh Caragh near Willarney (Jeffreys, Conch., 
v., 155, 1869). 
