THE FLORIDA TREE SNAILS OF THE GENUS LIGUUS 



By Charles Torrey Simpson 



INTRODUCTION 



The following pages are the result of studies and collections made 

 in the field during a residence of nearly 30 years in southern Florida 

 and of six visits to Cuba which permitted me to work over the island 

 from Cape San Antonio at the west end to within a hundred miles 

 of Cape Maisi at its eastern point. I have also visited Haiti and 

 collected Liguus virgineus in considerable quantity. This work on 

 the islands was not at all thorough as it was done in connection with 

 that of getting plants and collecting the land snail fauna in general, 

 but it gave me a considerable amount of Liguus material and ideas 

 of its distribution. I have made a rather careful search in Florida, 

 having tramped the East Coast Railroad several times from Key 

 Largo where it enters the Upper Keys to Key West at its terminus 

 and back again. I have visited practically every one of these islands 

 which have ever had Liguus and made collections on them. On the 

 mainland I have been in nearly every locality in which these snails 

 were found, and many of these places I have visited and worked over 

 a number of times. In all I have some kind of Liguus material 

 from over 300 Floridian localities, most of which I have personally 

 collected. For nearly 26 years I have had an opportunity to study 

 these snails in my own hammock within a hundred feet of my door. 



Long before I began to collect (1882) man had wrought great 

 destruction to the hammocks in which they live so that certain forms 

 were on the verge of extinction and in some localities all evidence 

 of them was obliterated, and at present the Liguus are almost ex- 

 terminated in Florida. Great areas of forest have been recently cut 

 in Cuba in order that sugar cane might be grown, and it is probable 

 that it will be a short time only when these snails will be wiped out 

 entirely in many localities in that island. Very much of the evi- 

 dence necessary to a complete study of them is therefore missing, 

 and the future student will only be able to use material collected 



No. 2741— .Proceedings U. S. National Museum. Vol. 73, Art. 20. 



97556—29-^1 1 



