162 Mr. W. H. Benson on new species of Helix. 



Lea described as H. Woodiana, I annex a more extended and 

 accurate description than that given by me in 1836. The cha- 

 racters " testa perforata, subdepressa, spira subconoidea/^ already 

 indicated a sufficient difference from H. similarisj which is " an- 

 guste umbilicata, subdepresso-globosa." 



Amended Character. 

 H. Cestus, Bens. J. A. S. vol. v. p. 353, 1836 (Pfr. 884). 



Testa perforata, subdepresso-conoidea, fuscescente-cornea, subpli- 

 cato-striata, supra angulum castaneo-unizonata ; spira subco- 

 noidea, apice obtusato ; anfractibus 5, leviter convexis, supra 

 subplanulatis, ultimi periphseria angulata, basi convexiuscula ; 

 apertura obliqua, depressa, minime transversa (altitudine latitu- 

 dinem sequante), rotundato-lunari, superne labro antrorsum ar- 

 cuate, expansiusculo, margine coiumellari basalique reflexis, illo 

 dilatato, perforationem semitegente. 



The greater narrowness of the perforation which is nearly 

 concealed by the reflected columellar lip, the more obtuse apex, 

 more planulate whorls, less convex base, the oblique, sinuous and 

 less transverse depressed aperture, and the more angular peri- 

 phery, serve, independently of colour, to distinguish H. Cestus 

 from any of the varieties of H. similaris. 



H. Cestus is from the same quarter as H. serrula, Benson, 1836 

 (Pfr. no. 540), of which H. Bensoni, Von dem Busch (Pfr. 568), 

 is clearly a variety, H. delibrata^, Bens. 1836 (Pfr. no. 959), of 

 which H. procumbensy Gould, Bost. Journ. vol. iv. (Pfr. 1012), 

 redescribed and refigured in Philippics ' Abbildungen,' is a syno- 

 nym, H. plectostoma, climacterica, tapeina, and the fine species 

 H. Oxytes, Bens. The German conchologists mark these species 

 as from Bengal, but they come from the mountainous region 

 beyond the north-east border of that province, which is geogra- 

 phically a portion of the eastern peninsula beyond the Ganges ; 

 and it appears that H. delibrata is also found at Tavoy, in a 

 lower latitude of that peninsula. The continental zoologists are 

 apt to give a too extended signification to the term Bengal, con- 

 founding the province with the presidency ; thus we have " Almo- 

 rah Bengalise,^^ " Meywar Bengalise," situated respectively in the 

 Western Himalaya, and Rajpootana in Western India, the pro- 

 ductions of which are quite distinct from those of Bengal and 

 of each other, and the inhabitants of which speak a different lan- 

 guage, and would hold themselves aggrieved by being confounded 

 with the enervated occupants of Bengal proper. 



* The character "depresso-plana" should have excluded //. delibrata from 

 PfeifFer's division No. 69, and should have placed it in No. 71, in which he 

 has classed //. prociimhens. 



