THE GENUS GYROTOMA 

 By Calvin Goodrich 



The genus Gyrotoma has received no systematic treatment in fifty years. 

 Since 1873, when Tryon's monograph was pubHshed, three collectors, T. H. 

 Aldrich, A. A. Hinkley and H. H. Smith have taken many hundred times 

 more specimens than were available for study by the naturalists who de- 

 scribed the species. For the present inquiry I have examined material from 

 several sources. The collection made by Mr. Smith and now in the Ala- 

 bama Aluseum of Natural History is unrivaled, and, because of the water- 

 power development in the Coosa River, flooding the shoals in which Gyro- 

 tomae live, it can probably never be duplicated. Acknowledgments are 

 due to the Alabama Museum, the U. S. National Museum, Dr. Bryant 

 Walker and Miss Mina Winslow. Without their aid this work could not 

 even have been attempted. 



The Record 



Dr. Isaac Lea was the first descriptive naturalist to receive specimens of 

 Gyrotoma. These he described as Melania excisa and Anculosa incisa, sug- 

 gesting at the same time the generic term Schizostoma. When later he 

 found the name already in use for a fossil he changed it to Schizochilus. In 

 the meanwhile Shuttleworth had defined his genus. The fossil Schizostoma 

 as well as the Schizostoma of Lea finally were forced into the synonymy. 

 The good doctor, one of whose picturesque qualities was tenacity of pur- 

 pose coupled, with a certain fervid plausibility, sought to dig his original 

 name out of its grave. The canons of nomenclature do not allow for cases 

 of resurrection, and Gyrotoma has had to stand as the true generic desig- 

 nation. 



Lea's specimens were sent to him by Dr. B. W. Budd. Because these 

 shells were few in numbers, the condition of many of them that of drift 

 material, their place of origin confused, and because Dr. Budd was himself 

 interested in conchology and hardly likely to take ten or twenty shells where 

 he might have gathered thousands, it is improbable that he was the collector. 

 About the same period, Gyrotomae came to Mighels and apparently from 

 the same correspondent. This was 1841, possibly 1842, to 1845. All the 

 forms were of the Wetumpka aspect. In July, 1845, Shuttleworth described 

 two species. His specimens had been collected by Rugel, who apparently 

 visited the Coosa River at Greensport or thereabouts and may have gone 

 as far down as Childersburg. It was not until 1904, when Mr. H. H. Smith 

 began to explore the Coosa systematically, that Shuttleworth's one "good" 

 species was found by an American collector. This history is an illustra- 

 tion of the casual, one might say accidental, collecting of early-day zoology 

 in America. 



