HELIX. 181 



This is sometimes called the '' Apple-snail/^ which is 

 an appropriate name as regards its shape ; but the word 

 " pomatia '' is derived from iroifxa an operculum, and not 

 from pomum an apple. Pliny and Dioscorides applied 

 the same name to it, and for a similar reason. 



B. Shell globose : outer lip reflected : umbilicus wanting, ex- 

 cept in the young. 



4. H. ASPERSA^, Mliller. 



H. aspersa, Miill. Verm. Hist, pt.ii. p. 59 ; F. & H. iv. p. 44, pi. cxvi. f. 1. 



Body oblong, narrow and rounded in front, pointed behind, 

 dark-brown or dirty-grey, mottled with milk-white specks, 

 coarsely and strongly granulated : tentacles long and slender, 

 considerably diverging from each other, brown ; bulbs small : 

 foot broad, rounded in front and finely pointed behind, having 

 a narrowish border of yellow, and transversely wrinkled. 



Shell globular, rather solid, opaque, not glossy, yellowish, 

 with spiral dark-reddish-brown bands ; these bands are often 

 five in number on the last whorl and three on the preceding one, 

 but some of them are frequently confluent, and they are always 

 more or less interrupted by transverse and zigzag streaks of 

 white ; the sculpture consists of numerous pit-marks, which 

 probably correspond with the tubercles of the mantle, as well 

 as of very fine, but indistinct, spiral striae, giving the surface 

 a shagreened appearance : epidermis rather thick : whorls 4|, 

 convex, the last occupying about two-thirds of the shell : spire 

 short and ending in a blunt point : suture rather obhque, well 

 defined but not deep : mouth obliquely roundish-oval, obtusely 

 angulated above : outer lip rather thin, white and considerably 

 reflected, much incurved towards the columella : inner Up ex- 

 tremely thin and spread on the columella : umbilicus slightly 

 perceptible in the young, but afterwards covered by a fold and 

 thickening of the pillar lip. L. 1"4. B. 1*4. 



Var. 1. albo-fasciata. Shell reddish-brown, with a single 

 white band. 



Var. 2. exalbida, Menke. Shell yellowish or whitish, 



Var. 3. conoidea, Picard. Shell smaller, more conical, and 

 thinner : mouth smaller. 



* Besprinkled. 



