40 OT'DE : LIST OF ITELlCOin LAND SHELLS. 



The next two important contributions are ]>y Dr. A. R. Wallace and 

 Professor E. von Martens, who visited many of the islands, whence they 

 brought home a great number of novelties. The former naturalist pub- 

 lished a check-list, the new species being described by Henry Adams ; 

 while the latter gave his results in the publication of the Prussian Expe- 

 dition to Eastern Asia. This work constitutes a veritable landmark in 

 the malacology of the region, and forms the basis of all subsequent work 

 in this branch of zoology. Beccari, Doria, and d'Albertis followed, while 

 more recently Bock, Forbes, Weyers, Everett, Doherty, 0. Strubell, 

 Kukenthal, Weber, Semon, Ten Kate, Fruhstorfer, and Roebelen have 

 further enriched our knoAvledge by the addition of new material. Men- 

 tion must also be made of the suin])tuous work on the Mollusca of 

 Celebes by the Brothers Sarasin. who liaxt'contributrd much to that jxtr- 

 tion of the faiuia. 



While looking over the collection of Malaysian land .shells in the British 

 Museum, Mr. Smith pointed out to me a few shells collected by Doherty, 

 and others which had been purchased, which had not been worked out, 

 and he kindly placed them at my dis])osal. P'our appear to be inidescribed, 

 and I now append diagnoses and figures of them. Two others were at 

 first believed to be new, and under this impression they were figured. 

 I discovered subsequently that they were already described. 



On glancing at the list of the Helicoids of the Eastern Archipelago, 

 one is struck by the fact that as one goes eastwards the Zonifiilae, which 

 as far as nmnljer of species is concerned, at first preponderate, decrease 

 and give way to the JJelicidae, which thereupon, in their turn, out- 

 number the Zonitidao. The dividing line, roughly speaking, 

 appears to be one separating Borneo from Celebes and the Moluccas. This, 

 however, scarcely applies to the Lesser Simda Islands east of Sumbawa. 

 (Jf the Zonifiilae, the genus Dyakia is confined to the Mahiy Peninsula, 

 Sumatra, Java, and Borneo ; while Xesta is absent from Sumatra and 

 Java ; for although I have doubtfully referred one Javan species {dwi- 

 paensis) to Xesta, it will probably prove to pertain to Lamjrrocyslis, or 

 some allied gentis. Macrochlamys is fairly general in distribution, but 

 appears to be replaced in Borneo by Ererettia, which reaches Buru through 

 Celebes. Hemipleda and Trochomorpha are distributed over the whole 

 group. Macrocydoides has hitherto only been recorded from Borneo, 

 Buru, Amboina, Haruku, and Saparua, being represented in each of these 

 islands by one species. Of Endodontidae only one species is known in 

 Java, and one in Celebes. Coming to the Helicidae, Pseudobba has two 

 species each in Celebes and Sangir. Planispira, s.s., does not appear 

 to occiu' we.st of Lombok and Celebes ; it has its centre of distribution 

 in the Moluccas, and is replaced in the Aru Islands by the section Cris- 

 tigibba, which forms a connecting link with the New Guinea fauna. Trachia 

 occurs only (otherwise than on the Continent of x\sia) in the Malay 



