a 
70 HYALINIA NITIDULA. 
diminishes in size and importance; the fifth and sixth teeth being really transi- 
tional, and leading to the thirty aculeate true marginals, which diminish very 
gradually in size as the margin of the odontophore is approached. 
The formula of a specimen from Barmouth, collected by Mr. J. Hopkinson, was 
SO 454+ 54+3 +42 x 35 = 2,485. 
Reproduction and Development.—The congress of this species 
has not yet been noted, but the eggs of the var. nitens are said by 
Moquin-T'andon and Gassies to be deposited amongst and beneath dead 
leaves from June to August and to be from thirty to fifty im number ; 
they are very small and spherical, of a whitish colour, and rather glossy, 
with a somewhat cretaceous envelope which under a lens shows a number 
of minute spots. 
Dr. Gain, who had this species in confinement, reported that eggs were 
deposited in the middle of September, and not buried but left scattered 
on the surface of the ground ; they were about 13 mill. in diameter, with 
an opaque-white calcareous shell. 
The hatching takes place in about fifteen days, and the growth is very 
slow, the shell not attaining full growth until the end of the following 
year, and according to Hazay the life-period of the var. nitens probably 
extends to two years. 
Food and Habits.—Few notes have been made of the food of this 
species, although like its congeners it shows predilection for animal food, 
having been observed by Messrs. Boycott and Bowell feasting upon the 
dead body of an Oniscus at Longtown in Herefordshire ; while a few indi- 
viduals kept in confinement by Mr. L. BE. Adams attacked and devoured 
several smaller individuals of their own species and an example of Azeca 
tridens contined with them, gnawing through the shell of the latter 
species to reach the inhabitant. 
In captivity, Dr. Gain found this species to eagerly devour the fruit ot 
the raspberry ; and to partake freely of half-decayed thistle, foliage of onion, 
the roots of carrot and potato, and two species of Russula; less freely 
eaten were Agaricus procerus, the cornbine, houseleek, the leaves and roots 
of two kinds of turnips, while the Lesser Celandine was scarcely touched. 
HT. nitidula is generally considered to be a shy, timid, but somewhat 
irritable species, slow and sluggish in movement, carrying its shell at an 
angle of about 30°, and giving off an abundance of watery mucus. 
A half-grown individual was timed and found to progress at the rate of 
a mile in forty-eight days and two hours. 
Like the other allied species, it at times gives off an unmistakeable odour 
of garlic, but this power 1s a very variable one. 
Hf. nitidula inhabits our woods and hedges, hidmg under stones and 
amongst moss, nettles, dead and decaying leaves, rubbish heaps, etc., 
seeming to prefer moist and watery places. 
Dumont and Mortillet have affirmed that in Savoy A. nitidula is 
restricted to the plains, ascending only to the vine zone, while H. nitens 
inhabits cold and moist forests on the mountain sides, but not ascending 
beyond the limit of trees, and has been collected at Lanslevillard, Savoy, 
at an altitude of about 5,000 feet ; while H. nitidula is said by Pollonera 
to ascend only to 4,000 feet in Northern Italy. 
Though not very sensitive to cold, it yet buries itself several inches 
deep in the soil during severe weather, emerging to the surface in the 
milder intervals. ‘I'he pulsations of the heart are a little over eight per 
minute at 30° Fahr., rising to nine at 31°; to thirteen at 41°, and attaining 
twenty-nine contractions when the temperature advanced to 52°. 
