187 



ON THE ANATOMY OF THE HELIX AMPULLA OF BENSON, AND 

 ITS GENERIC POSITION IN THE A BIOPH ANTING. 



By Lieut. -Colonel H. H. Godwin - Austen, F.R.S., etc. 



Read Wth January, 1901. 



PLATE XVIII. 



Ariophanta (Indrella, n. subgen.) ampulla, Benson. 



Helix ampulla, Bens. : Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. n, vol. v (1850), 

 p. 213; Reeve, Conch. Icon., fig. 736; Pfeiffer, Mon. 

 Helic, vol. iii, p. 27, and vol. iv, p. 9 ; Hanley & 

 Theobald, Conch. Indica, p. 13, pi. xxv, fig. 4. 



Paryphanta ampulla, Bens. : Theobald, Cat. Land & Fresh-water Shells 

 Brit. Ind, p. 17. 



Nanina ampulla, Bens. : Nevill, Hand List Moll. Ind. Mus., p. 54. 



Panda ampulla, Bens. : Albers, Die Heliceen, 1860, p. 149. 



After many years of expectation, I have at length seen the animal 

 of Helix ampulla, Benson, one of the largest and most interesting of 

 the South Indian Land Mollusca. Both animal and shell are large 

 and of handsome form and coloration. The systematic position of this 

 species has long been very uncertain ; in fact, ever since it was first 

 discovered by Dr. T. C. Jerdon on the Khoorda Ghat in the Nilgiri Hills, 

 and described by Benson in 1850. The latter says, " The shell bears 

 very much the appearance of a large globular Vitrina, for which it has 

 been taken, but the rough surface of the shell shows that it has been 

 formed by an animal of very different organization, and its affinities 

 place it near the singular and beautiful Helicophantoid Helices, 

 Waltoni, of Ceylon, and magnifica, of Madagascar." Theobald placed 

 it in Paryphanta. Nevill, when so very little was known of the 

 animal, more appropriately in Nanina. The two specimens kindly 

 placed in my hands by Dr. W. T. Blanford were obtained in Southern 

 India, and we are again indebted to Dr. Thurston for collecting and 

 sending home such well-preserved material for study. 



It was Dr. W. T. Blanford who, in 1863, first noted the presence 

 of a mucous gland. In Mr. Geoffrey JNevilPs manuscript revised 

 Hand List of the Shells in the Calcutta Museum it is stated, on 

 the authority of Colonel Beddome, that the animal is yellow, and 

 that there is a variety in the Wynaad of a distinct red colour, of 

 which Colonel Beddome had sent two specimens to the Museum. 



Dr Blanford has also sent me an excellent drawing of the living 

 animal, life-size, fully extended, that was executed very many years 



VOL. IV. — JULY, 1901. 1* 



