119 



ON THE OCCURRENCE OF VERTIGO PAROEDENTATA, AL. BRAUN, 

 IN HOLOCENE DEPOSITS IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By A. S. Kennard, F.G.S., and B. B. Woodward, F.L.S., etc. 



Read Qth April, 1906. 



In 1890 Mr. T. Scott noted the occurrence in a Holocene deposit 

 at Kirkland Leven, Scotland, of a form of Vertigo, which, although 

 resembling V. pygmcBa, yet, since it was edentulous, might prove to 

 be a distinct species, and he suggested the provisional name of 

 V. cojicinna} 



In 1891 this form was described and figured by the same author, 

 the provisional name of concinna being again used.^ In the same 

 year Mr. T. D. A, Cockerell pointed out that there might be confusion 

 between this species and Pwpa concinna, Lowe, from Madeira,^ which 

 suggestion Mr. Scott, in the note immediately following, accepted, and 

 proposed the new name of Levenemis} The species was stated to be 

 not uncommon in the Kirkland deposit. Since its discovery it has not 

 been noted in any other locality. 



Several years ago Prof. T. Rupei't Jones gave one of us some 

 material from a Holocene deposit at Stamford, and on working it over 

 it yielded a fair number of this species. It had always appeared to 

 us, however, that this form, though certainly distinct from all other 

 British forms, would probably prove to be a previously described 

 continental species, and after a careful perusal of the literature we 

 came to the conclusion that it was probably identical with Vertigo 

 parcedentata, Al. Braun, We therefore submitted examples of the 

 Stamford shells to Dr. 0. Boettger, who most kindly informed us 

 that they agreed with the variety Oenenii, Gredler, of V. parcedentata. 

 This species is very variable as to the number of teeth. Typical 

 parcedentata possess one or two teeth (the single-toothed form being 

 known as var. glandicida, Sandb.), and is very much rarer than the 

 edentulous form var. Genesii. This latter form is known in a recent 

 state from St. Genesien, near Bozen, in the Tyrol ; from Oester- 

 goetland, Sweden ( Westerlund) ; and Isarauswurf, near Munich. 



The var. Geneui has been recorded in a fossil state by Dr. Boettger 

 from the Pleistocene of Mosbach, Kleinert, near Grosszimmern, the 



' "Preliminary notes on a Po.st-Tertiarj^ Fresh-water Deposit at Kirkland Leven 

 and at Elie, Fifeshire " : Proc. Royal Phys. Soc. Edin., vol. x, p. 334. 



^ Scottish Naturalist, 1891. T. Scott: "Some notes on the Scotch species of the 

 Molluscan genus Vertigo,'''' p. 49 and pi. i. 



^ Op. cit., p. 141. 



« Op. cit., p. 141. 



