Mr. W. H. Benson on new Asiatic species of the genus Pupa. 125 



XV. — Descriptions of four new Asiatic species of the genus Pupa 

 of Draparnaud. By W. H. Benson, Esq. 



In the ' Zeitschrift fiir Malakologie ' for 1846 Dr. PfeifFer adverts 

 to the paucity of known species of Pupa from other countries 

 than Europe, North America, the West Indies, and the Cape of 

 Good Hope. In his ' Monographia ^ he cites only Pupa bicolor, 

 Hutton, as inhabiting India as well as the Isle of Bourbon 

 (P. Largilliei'tif Philippi), giving but a single Indian locality 

 (Mirzapore) for it; and he quotes Pupa sulcata, Miiller, as a 

 Ceylonese shell. The latter species may possibly occur in the 

 station assigned to it, but it is also certainly a Mauritian shell, 

 haunting the woods around Curepipe, with P. Pagoda, Per., ac- 

 cording to Sir David Barclay and Mr. Rawson. Pupa bicolor has 

 a very extensive range. Its beautiful vermilion and yellow tints, 

 similar to those of several Mauritian Pupa, attracted my atten- 

 tion to the animal in Bundelkhund as early as 1825 ; and I sub- 

 sequently took it in numerous localities*, but in no place very 

 plentifully, from the foot of the Himalayas in Rohilkhund down 

 to the neighbourhood of Calcutta. In 1847 I met with it at 

 Point de Galle in Ceylon, and Dr. Cantor found it, though rarely, 

 in Pulo Penang. It did not occur to me at the Mauritius, al- 

 though inhabiting its neighbour island. 



I have now to make known four new Oriental species ; one 

 from China scarcely yielding the palm of size to any of the genus, 

 the other three from India proper, all minute. Of these, two in- 

 habit the Himalaya and one Lower Bengal. Some other species 

 from India have been assigned to the genus Pupa, which, how- 

 ever, fall more correctly into the cylindrical division of the genus 

 Bulimus. 



ir: !• Pupa regia, nobis. 



T. profundissime umbilicata, elongato-conica, subcylindrica, solida, 

 alba, laevigata, nitidiuscula, oblique et remote, obsoleteque plicato- 

 striata ; spira superne sensim attenuata, apice obtusiusculo ; um- 

 bilico pervio ; anfractibus undecim subplanulatis, ultimo antice 

 ascendente, validius plicato, ad basin compresso ; sutura lineari, 

 irregulariter crenata ; apertura oblique truncate- ovata, sublaterali, 



* Viz. Bhamoury, Moradabad, and Bareilly, in Rohilkhund ; Etawah and 

 Futtehpore in the Do-ab of the Ganges and Jumna ; at Humeerpore in 

 Bundelkhund, south of the latter river ; at Jounpore and Mirzapore in the 

 Benares Division, north and south of the Ganges ; and at Howrah, on the 

 west bank of the Hooghly river, near Calcutta. It shelters itself in the 

 ground under loose stones, bricks, or wood, and comes forth in the rains of 

 July. At Bhamoury 1 got it by digging at the root of a tree. It was there 

 much dwarfed. The lower ranges of the Himalaya, within which it has 

 never been met with, rise immediately from that spot ; and attain, in the 

 course of twelve miles, an elevation of 8000 feet. 



