242 GEOMALACUS. 



silence ; and this fabrication attained an alarming extent in 

 France. The statements were at first so positively made by our 

 French contemporaries, that even the incredulous (including 

 mvself) almost believed in the existence of this genus in France ; 

 but those who with any attention read my short treatise in the 

 " Nachrichtsblatt der deutschen Malakozoologischen Gesell- 

 schaft," 1869, p. 165, entitled " Zur Kenntniss von Geomalacus," 

 will readily see what serious doubts I entertained upon the 

 subject. Our French neighbors did not favor us with any 

 drawings of their new species, although they describe the 

 English drawings as " deplorables." 



I had myself never before seen a live Geomalacns ; neither 

 could I obtain any French specimens, in spite of the pains I 

 took for this purpose. It will, therefore, I trust be deemed 

 excusable that I expressed doubts where I could not contradict 

 by facts. But now since I have received the living Geomalacus, 

 and have had an opportunity of examining the animal, the 

 question assumes a different aspect. 



The French so-called species do not belong at all to Geo- 

 malacus ; and those who may still entertain a doubt on this 

 point need but inspect the drawings, which have since appeared 

 in Baudon's " Memoire sur les Limaciens du departeinent de 

 1'Oire ' (Beauvais, 1871), of Geomalacus Mabilli, Baudon, and 

 G. hiemaliS) Drouet. These drawings are excellent ; and for 

 this very reason we at once detect in them our old acquain- 

 tance Arion melanocephalus, Faure-Biguet, which likewise has 

 lately been recognized as our common Arion empiricorum, Fer., 

 in its younger state of growth by Seibert (see u Nachrichtsblatt 

 der deut. Mai. Ges." December, 1872). 



These drawings of Baudon are alone sufficient entirely and 

 effectually to upset at once the famous myth of a French 

 Geomalacus. This genus has not as yet been discovered in 

 France, and all the species described as French are in all prob- 

 ability not different from Arion empiricorum. I very much 

 question whether the French authors have ever seen a living 

 Geomalacus; and for their own justification I would deny the 

 fact, because they could never otherwise have entertained the 

 idea of turning a young" Arion into a Geomalacus, although it is 

 no wonder that, when once an erroneous generic designation had 



