244 GEOMALACUS. 



means " delicate," and much less " mince or plate," but actually 

 very solid in fact, as solid as we rarely meet with internal 

 shells, to whatever genus they may belong. It only remains for 

 me to add a few words, in order to dispose of the remainder of 

 Mabille's species, created only to swell the above-mentioned 

 monograph. These are designated : Geomalacus Andrewsi, 

 Mabille ; G. anguiformis, Morelet, and G. intermedius, Nor- 

 mand. Allman, Andrews and others, repeatedly name a 

 white-spotted variety, the same which in my treatise, "Ueber 

 Geomalacus" (Malacozool. Blatter, 1873), with drawings, I 

 called var. Allmanni, in contradistinction to the more frequently 

 occurring yellow-spotted variety, which is the tj^pical form. 

 Andrews calls the white -spotted form simply, "the white 

 variety ; " and on this white-variety (it should be white-spotted 

 variety) Mabille writes as follows : " Cette nouvelle espece, que 

 nous dedions a Monsieur William Andrews de Dublin, et que 

 tous les auteurs Anglais ont confondus avec le maculosus, se 

 distingue de cette espece par un corps blanchatre parseme d'une 

 multitude de petits points noiratres. C'est 1'in verse chez 1 'espece 

 preceMente (maculosus)." He evidently misconstrues the original 

 meaning; and the result is the new species Andrewsi. Jeffreys, 

 in his " British Conchology," says, " I suspect that the Limax 

 anguiformis of Morelet (Moll. Port.) also belongs to the present 

 genus, if, indeed, it is not the same species as ours." This 

 simple notice suffices to settle the Geomalacus anguiformis, 

 Morelet, whose specific diagnosis is anything but improved by 

 the all but useless drawing of Morelet. Finally, Normand 

 ascribes to his Arion intermedius an internal shell ; and thus we 

 obtain a Geomalacus intermedius, Normand. 



It is to be regretted that the rubbish of synonymy is thus 

 needlessly multiplied to an extraordinary degree by such 

 ingenuity in creating new species and even new genera. The 

 Annals and Magazine of Nat. History, vol. xi, fourth series, 

 page 271. London, 1873. 



G. MACULOSUS, Allman. PI. 59, figs. 49, 50. 



Shield and upper portion of body black, elegantly spotted 

 with yellow, often forming more or less interrupted stripes on 

 the back ; margin of foot brown, with transverse sulci ; loco- 



