MACROCHLA.MYS. 79 



Macroclilamys comprises many of the commonest Indian snails, 

 and species abound in the damper parts of the country. The 

 described forms are very numerous, and a great number are un- 

 described, but the differences in the shells are so small that in 

 many cases the species cannot be readily distinguished by descrip- 

 tions or even by figures. Several of those already described and 

 named will very probably never be identified again. [The species 

 are far better, even easily, distinguishable the one from the other 

 by the animal, its external characters and internal anatomy. 

 Owing to their many enemies and changes from excessive moisture 

 to great dryness, it is difficult to find shells of mature size; on the 

 other hand, the immature are abundant, and thus new species 

 have in so many cases been created on them ; but sooner or later 

 the adult forms turn up.] 



Because of the difficulty of recognizing the different forms, the 

 species are here arranged according to locality. The microscopic 

 sculpture, to which attention has been particularly directed by 

 Lt.-Col. Godwin- Austen, often affords a means of identification. 



[In the Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. iii, p. S3 (Feb. 1832), 

 Capt. Thos. Hutton describes the Mirzapur shell and gives a good 

 description of the animal, which is recorded from low hills near 

 Mirzapur, as H. petrosa, mini ; he mentions the " two narrow, 

 flat, gradually pointed filaments or tentacula, which, when the 

 animal is in motion, are kept constantly playing over the surface of 

 the shell." To Huttori, therefore, and not to Dr. Gray, belongs 

 the credit among English naturalists of having first described the 

 animal of this genus and noted the great difference between the 

 European and Asiatic forms of Helix as then constituted.] 



A. Species from Himalayas west of Nepal, 

 a. Subylobose or subc/lobosely depressed, not labiate. 



116. Macrochlamys vesicula, Bs. (Hutton MS.} (Nanina) J. A. S. B. 

 vii, 1838, p. 216 ; ? id. (Helix) A. M. N. H. (2) ix, 1852, p. 406 : 

 Hutton (Nanina), J. A. S. B. vi, 1837, p. 931 ; Pfr. Helix 



(Nanina) Mon. Hel. i, 1837, p. 48; id. t. c. iii, 1853, p. 

 H. $ T. (Helix) C. L 1876, pi. 63, figs. 5, 6; Nevill, Nanina 

 (Macrochlamys), Hand-L i, 1878, p. 25. 



Shell perforate, subglobosely depressed, thin, smooth, trans- 

 lucent, vitreous, pale, almost whitish horny; spire low, apex 

 acuminate, suture impressed; whorls 6, convex above, the last 

 larger, well-rounded at the periphery and tumid beneath ; aper- 

 ture very slightly oblique, roundly lunate, about as high as 

 broad ; peristome very thin, in one plane, columellar margin much 

 curved, vertical above and triangularly reflected at the perforation. 



[Hutton and Benson's original description should be referred to. 

 The shell to which this description applies, drawn up by Dr. Blan- 

 ford, cannot now be picked out from among those under the name 



