CANARIAN GROUP. 413 



Helix monilifera. 



Helix monilifera, W. et B., Ann. des Sc. Nat. 38. syn. 315 



(1833) 

 „ „ dVrb., in W. etB. Hist. 61. t. 1. f. 21, 22 



(1839) 

 „ lancerottensis, Id., [sed nc-n fig.], ibid. 60 (1839) 

 „ monilifera, Pfeiff., Mon. Hel. i. 160 (1848) 

 „ „ Mouse., Schw. Denkschrift, xv. 5 (1857) 



„ „ Id., Faun. Mai. des Can. 39 (1872) 



Habitat Lanzarotam, Fuerteventnram, Canariam Grandem, 

 Teneriffam, Gomeram, et Palm am (in Hierro sola adbuc hand 

 detecta) ; in aridis apricis inferioribus, sub lapidibus, prsesertim 

 juxta mare. 



A most distinct and well marked little Helix, and one 

 which in all probability is quite universal throughout the 

 Canarian archipelago, though it does not happen up to the 

 present date to have been observed in Hierro. In the other six 

 islands, however, it was taken by Mr. Lowe and myself; and it 

 appears to have been found in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura by 

 Webb and Berthelot, Fritsch, and Reiss, in Grand Canary by 

 Webb and Berthelot, and Grasset, and in Palma by Blauner. 

 Mousson says : ' Cette espece traverse, comme on voit, toute la 

 serie des Canaries ;' yet, by his own shewing, he makes no re- 

 ference to its existence in either Gomera or Hierro. Never- 

 theless we met with it in the former of those islands, and I 

 have little doubt that it must occur equally in the latter. 



In Lanzarote our specimens were principally from the lofty 

 sea-cliffs known as the Eisco (overlooking the Salinas), in the 

 extreme north of that island, — which seems to be the locality 

 from whence Webb's types were originally obtained ; as well as 

 from Chache, Los Llanos, Temise, and the neighbourhood of 

 Arrecife (particularly along the road to Yaiza). The Fuerte- 

 venturan ones were mainly from the Rio Palmas. Those from 



have been obtained by M. Terver from bags of dried orchil, the precise origin 

 of which was confessedly unknown), as species founded upon evidence 

 which was altogether untrustworthy and insufficient, it may perhaps seem 

 a little inconsistent that I should not have acted in a similar manner 

 as regards Shut tie worth's H. nmbiuula and ccementitia^ — both of which are 

 orchil shells of Terver's, and both of which exist equally (and only) in 

 the collection at Marseilles ; and possibly indeed it would have been wiser 

 had I refused to admit them. Still, since both species (judging from their 

 published diagnoses) are more on the Canarian pattern than the others 

 to which I have above alluded, and since in one or two exceptional in- 

 stances M. Terver's guesses concerning habitat turned out to be correct, I 

 have given them the advantage of the doubt by admitting them ; though 

 I am nevertheless far from satisfied that it would not have been better, 

 until respectable evidence has been adduced, to have rejected them in toto. 



