304 TEXT ACE A ATLANTIC A. 



El Monte, necnon prsBcipue ad oppidulum Teror, hinc inde 

 degena. 



I am extremely doubtful whether this is more in reality 

 than an insular modification, peculiar to Grand Canary, of the 

 II. consobrinn, For., of Teneriffe. Indeed, after a very careful 

 comparison of an extensive series of both forms, it seems to me 

 that they have positively nothing to separate them except that 

 the 11. (hut nartemes has its peristome a trifle more thickened 

 and (like the II. scweostoma and Gaudryi) of a pinkish-purple, 

 or flesh-coloured, tinge, and that its columella (when viewed 

 obliquely) is just appreciably shorter. All other characters re- 

 ferred to in the published diagnoses are simply imaginary. Thus 

 Mr. Lowe speaks of the H. Guanartemes (i. e. his H. Manri- 

 quiana') as ' laevigata (nee granulata),' andMousson lays equal 

 stress on the same feature ; whereas granules are nearly always 

 more or less traceable beneath a high magnifying power, and in 

 many of my examples they are almost as strongly expressed as 

 in even the H. sarcostoma or the H. Gudryi. Indeed these 

 ' granulations ' might well-nigh be said to be absolutely without 

 signification in a diagnostic point of view, for they are equally 

 variable both in the present Helix and in the H. consobrina. In 

 mere colour and markings, moreover, both species are so incon- 

 stant that hardly two individuals can be found which are exactly 

 alike ; so that no distinctions can possibly be drawn from either 

 pattern or hue. 



The H. Gtutnartemes, like the H. consobrina, is a rather thin 

 and malleated shell, with the transverse lines of growth very 

 fine, lightly expressed, and unequal, and the peristome mode- 

 rately expanded and recurved. Its surface is of a more or less 

 brownish-yellow hue (occasional examples possessing a ground- 

 colour of a comparatively clear yellow), and there are normally 

 5 conspicuous darker bands (some of which are often broad and 

 suffused, but seldom quite absent), — two being placed below the 

 dorsal line, two (which are at times confluent) immediately 

 above it, and one (which is more or less indented or freckled) 

 behind the suture. 



The present Helix was taken in Grand Canary both by 

 Grasset and Fritsch, and subsequently in considerable abun- 

 dance by Mr. Lowe and myself. We found it principally in 

 and around the little town of Teror (on one occasion even within 

 the house of Don Pedro Manrique), but likewise in the region 

 of El Monte, — particularly in the hollows of old trees at the 

 Laurealos, where some of the specimens, in their large size and 

 more strongly granulated surface, make a slight prima facie 

 approach in the direction of the II. Gaudryi, d'Orb. 



