BOTSIA. 297 



placing it near Pupa. At the same time he altered the specific 

 name to bcnsoni, to do which he had no right and for which, 

 moreover, there was no need. Curiously enough, with one 

 exception, every subsequent author who has referred to the 

 species has acquiesced in this arbitrary procedure. In 1850, 

 Albers, unaware apparently that Pfeiffer had already proposed a 

 new genus, introduced Hypostoma, placing it between Anostoma 

 and Tomigerus. The name having already been employed in 

 three different classes in zoology, von Martens, in 1860, altered 

 it to Hypotrema, at the same time reducing it to a section 

 of Pupa. 



In 1867 Stoliczka described a fossil shell, from a cretaceous 

 fresh-water deposit in the North-Eastern Alps, under the name 

 of Boysia lleussii*. Nevill in referring to this fossil f states that 

 it is a well characterized form and considers, judging from the 

 figure, that it is possibly correctly referred to Boysia. 



With all due deference to the weighty opinion of so eminent a 

 naturalist as Stoliczka or that of Nevill, I do not think the 

 association of two such different forms in one genus a very 

 happy one. The recent Indian shell has the aperture on the 

 same level as the penultimate whorl, forming not a rectangle 

 but a very acute angle, and on the last whorl the mouth is 

 vertical, whereas the European cretaceous shell has the mouth 

 inclined at a very acute angle. Saridberger certainly had a much 

 truer perception of its affinity, I believe, when he referred the 

 fossil to the genus Stroplwstoma J. 



Quite recently Professor Cockerell has also referred two Tertiary 

 species from Wyoming, U.S.A., to the genus Boysia . One of 

 these, B. phenacodorum, to judge from the figure, bears a striking 

 resemblance to the Indian recent species. I am inclined to 

 think, however, that this is simply a case of convergence. For 

 another closely allied form he creates a new genus, Protoboysia. 



266. Boysia boysi, Pfeiffer. 



Tomaqeres boysii (Anostoma) (Benson), Pfeiffer, Syinb. Hist. Helic. 



Hi, '1846, p. 82. 

 Anostoma boysii (Benson), Pfeiffer, Men. Helic. Viv. i, 1847, p. 2 ; 



Benson, A. M. N. H. ser. 2, ii, 1848, p. 164. 

 Boysia bensoni, Pfeifter, Zeit. Malak. vi, 1849, p. 105 ; ibid., Conch.- 



Cab., Helix, ii, 1853, p. 6, pi. 101, figs. 25-28 ; Adams, Gen. Rec. 



Moll, ii, 1855, p. 167, pi. 76, fig. 2 ; Pfeiffer, Malak. Blatt. ii, 1856, 



Hypostoma boysii, Albers, Die Heliceen, 1850, p. 130. 

 Pupa (Hypotrema) boysii, von Martens, Die Heliceen, ed. 2, 1860, 

 p. 305. 



* Sitz.-Ber. K. Akad. Wiss. Wieu, xxxviii, 1859, p. 493, pi. 1, fig. 17. 



t J. A. S. B. 1, 1881, p. 128. 



J Land- und Sussw. Couch. Vorwelt, 1871, p. 80, pi. 3, fig. 12. 



Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. New York, xxxiii, 1914, p. 324. 



