270 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. [1885. 



from Ungava nearly the extreme northeastern limit of America. All 

 these, and many from intermediate points, preserve their characters 

 with great uniformity. 



Zonites (Hyalina) minusculus Binney. 



Helix minuscuht Biinicy, Bost Journ. Nat. Hist., iii, p. 435, pi. 22, fig. 4, Nov., 



la40"? W. G. Bimi.,1. c, p. 118. 

 Helix ainx C. B., Ad. Contr. Couch., p. 36, Oct., 1849, fide Biuney. 

 Helix Lavalleana D'Orbiguy, Moll. Cuba, 1, p. 161, pi. viii, figs. 20-22,1841.* 

 1 Helix mxicola Pfr., Wiegman's Arch., i, p. 251, May, 1840. 

 Helix maurimana Binney, Pfeiffer, ex parte von Orbiguy. 

 Helix miuutalis Morelot, Test. Nov. Cub., ii, p. 7, 1851, non F(?russac. 



Eahitaf. — ^orth America, from the Eed Eiver of thelSTorth to Yuca- 

 tan and Florida, Biuney ; Jamaica, C. B. Adams ; Cuba, Pfeifier and 

 D'Orbiguy; Japan, Bermuda, and Porto Eico (Binney, 1. c); Archer 

 and Enterprise, Fla., Dall ; Tampa, Fla., and IS'ew Orleans, La., Hemp- 

 hill ; Porto Cabello, Venezuela, Sumichrast, in U. S. Nat. Museum. 



This widely-si)read and well-known little species has been collected 

 by Professor Sumichrast, much further south than previously reported 

 with other Venezuelan species on the highlands near Porto Cabello. I 

 found it in Florida abundantly in the same locality as other small species 

 under the bark of decaying logs, &c. A ibrm of it which, at first sight, 

 looks different from minuscuht is rather larger than usual and above 

 shows no differences. Oa the base in the type the junction of the inner 

 lip with the body whorl takes place, following the course of the whorl, 

 inward from the middle line of the base of the whorl and generally about 

 the inner third. This gives a peculiarly thimble-shaped umbilicus. In 

 the variety under consideration the above-mentioned junction takes 

 place outside of the middle line or even at the outer third, while the 

 aperture is a little dilated. The result of this is to show a much larger 

 portion of the base of the penultimate whorl and to alter the facies of 

 the umbilicus. For this form, found in Alachua County, Florida, I would 

 suggest the varietal name alachuana, 



There is a curious tangle in regard to the name of this species. In the 

 second number (May) of the descriptive, or first volume, of the Archiv 

 fiir Naturgeschichte, Dr. Pfeiffer described, in 1840, a small JlelLv from 

 Cuba under the name of saxicola. The year before he had described 

 another under the name of Helix BootJiiana, which afterward became 

 the type of the subgenus Microphysa. Dr. Amos Binney read his de- 

 scription of Relix minuscida in i!^ovember, 1840, but the part of the jour- 

 nal in which it was printed contains papers which were not read until 

 February, 1841, and was probably published in that year. In 1841 the 

 earlier signatures and plates of D'Orbigny's Mollusques de Cuba ap- 



* The numbers of the figures of this species are exchanged on the plate with those 

 of J?. Mauriniana. This has caused some confusion in the work of Pfeiifer and Bin- 

 ney as regards synonymy. The text of this part of D'Orbigny's work was published 

 in 1841. 



