178 PROCEEDINGS OF THE MALACOLOGICAX SOCIETY. 



NOTE ON BENSONIA AND ON AN APPARENTLY UNDESCRIBED 

 SPECIES, B. MLVELA. 



By W. T. Blanfokd, LL.D., F.R.S., etc. 

 Read 147 A December, 1900. 



The genus, or subgenus, or section named Bensonia by PfeiftVr in 

 1855 l was first defined by Godwin- Austen in 1888, 2 altbougb JNevill 3 

 in 1878 brougbt together some of the west Himalayan species, to 

 which, if the name is retained, it properly belongs. The original list 

 by Pfeiffer certainly required amendment. 



From the point of view of the geographical distribution of animal 

 life, Bensonia is of remarkable interest, for the fauna of the western 

 Himalayas at moderate elevations is singularly devoid of peculiar 

 generic or subgeneric types, and the Himalayas generally, though 

 rich in peculiar species, are poor in peculiar genera. 



The animal of Bensonia, as examined by Colonel Godwin-Austen, 

 resembles externally that of Oxytes and Ariophanta, except that there 

 is a broad overhanging lobe above the mucous pore. In the anatomy, 

 however, there is a distinct approach to Macrochlamys, both in the 

 generative organs and in the radula. The shell is depressed and 

 subdiscoidal, and the most conspicuous characters are that there is 

 a thickened white callosity, or labiation, inside the peristome, and that, 

 in general, similar thickened bands, marking periods of rest in the 

 process of growth, traverse the whorls at irregular intervals from 

 the aperture, and are conspicuous externally as white transverse 

 streaks resembling varices. 



The type of Bensonia is Helix monticola, Hutton (1838), 4 and the 

 following are the species that apparently belong to it, with their 

 localities : — 



1. Bensonia monticola, Hutton. (-U- labiata and H. angelica, Pfr.) 



Western Himalayas, from Kumarin to Hazara, at elevations of 

 about 3,000 to 7,000 feet, locally higher; not north of the Pir 

 Panjal range in Kashmir. 



2. B. Jamuensis, Theobald: Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, pt. ir, vol. xlvii 



(1878), p. 1-12. Tavi Valley, between Chaneni and Udampur, 

 Kashmir; also Kulu. (Perhaps, as Theobald suggests, this is 

 a small variety of B. monticola, but, if so, it is a very well- 

 marked foi'm.) 



Mai. Blatt., 185o, lid. ii. p. 119. 

 Laud and Freshw. Moll. India, vol. i, p. '2 4 <3 . 

 Hand last Moll. Ind. Mus. Calcutta, pt. i, p. 49. 



References and synonymy will be found iu Godwin- Austen's " Laud and Fresh- 

 water Mollusca of India," I.e. 



