50 HELICIDJE. 



Helix \Ac.avus) superba, Pfeiffer, Malak. Blatt. ii, 1856, p. 144 ; 



Nevill, Hand List, i, 1878, p. 80. 

 Acavus superbus, Adams, Genera Moll, ii, 1858, p. 195; Pilsbry, 



Man. Conch, ser. 2, ix, 1894, p. 154 ; Handles, Proc. Malac. Soc. 



London, vi, 1900, p. 103, pi. 9, figs. 3, 14 (anatomy). 

 Helix (Macroon (Acavus)) superba, Pilsbry, Man. Conch, ser. 2, vi, 



1890, p. 81, pi. 16, figs. 3, 4. 



Original description. " T. imperforata, semigloboso-turbinata, 

 solida, irregulariter malleata et cingulis obtusis parum elevatis 

 munita, baud nitida, opaca, castanea ; spira brevis, conoidea, 

 apice obtusiuseulo pallida ; sutura mediocris ; anfr. vix 4 rapide 

 accrescentes, vix convexiusculi, ultimas peripheria subangulatus, 

 basi planus, antice descendens ; apertura perobliqua, angusta, 

 oblonga, intus coerulescens, nitida ; perist. album, fusco-limbatum, 

 late expansum, incrassato-reflexum, marginibus subparallelis, 

 <jallo crasso junctis, columellari calloso, perdilatato, piano, 

 introrsum clente transverse usque ad marginetn dextrum producto, 

 munito. 



" Diam. maj. 55, niin. 40, alt. 35 mill." (Pfeiffer.) 



Hdb Ceylon (Nevill, Gardener). 



This handsome species may readily be separated from Jicema- 

 stoma, phoenix, fastosus, and prosperus by the more pronounced 

 angulation of the periphery. The back of the body-whorl is 

 provided with some obliquely descending malleations, a feature 

 lacking in the other species, and the columellar plate is also 

 broader in most specimens. In some the lip, which varies from 

 light or dark brown to deep rose, is white on the inner edge, 

 while I possess two specimens from the H. Nevill collection with 

 a pure white lip ; these two shells are, moreover, remarkable in 

 not being unicolorous, the earlier whorls and the first two-thirds 

 of the last whorl exhibiting dark brown bands on a light ground, 

 regresented by the formula 2 3(4 5), all these bands becoming 

 confluent on the latter portion of the last whorl. 



Var. grevillei, Pfeiffer. 



Helix grevillei, Pfeiffer, P.Z.S. 1856, p. 387, pi. 36, fig. 8 ; ibid., 



Novit. Conch, ser. 1, i, 1858, p. 108, pi. 30, figs. 6, 7; Hanley & 



Theobald, Conch. Ind. 1875, pi. 127, tig. 7. 

 Helix (Acavus) grevillii, Martens, Die Heliceen, ed. 2, 1860, p. 172 ; 



Nevill, Hand List, i, 1878, p. 80. 

 Helix (Macroon (Acavus)) superba, var. grevillei, Pilsbry, Man. 



Conch, ser. 2, vi, 1890, p. 82, pi. 12, figs. 47, 48. 



The peristome, parietal callus, and cohimellar plate are blackish 

 brown in most specimens, but in a shell from the H. Nevill 

 collection they are jet-black, the shell itself being greyish-black. 

 In other respects this form cannot be separated from typical 

 A. superbus. 



