210 OTHER DENIZENS OF THE WOODS 



be golden-brown, thin and translucent, and about \ of an inch long and T 3 F of an 

 inch wide. 



The agate-snails are also very rare in Europe ; one species, however, the needle- 

 snail (Achatina acicula), is occasionally found beneath decaying roots. It is very 

 small, the shell being only ^ of an inch in diameter and ^ of an inch long and very 

 much compressed and drawn out. Another interesting genus is Clausilia, in which 

 the shell is left-handed and spindle-shaped, with the mouth constricted by numerous 

 teeth-like projections. These snails live in damp places, under old stumps and moss, 

 or on walls, and are very common in southern Europe, especially Dalmatia. Simpler 

 in construction, and as a rule rarer, are the glass-snails ( Vitrina), which are about 

 \ of an inch in diameter, and have flat, greenish shells with a large semilunar mouth. 



The pigmy horn-snail (Carychi lum minimum) lives under damp moss in the 

 woods. Its transparent shell, consisting of five ami a half whorls, has an obliquely 

 oval mouth, and is only f^-of an inch long. Unlike the preceding genera, ( 'arycKiu m 

 has the eyes at the base of the tentacles instead of at their tips. Like the former, 

 however, it is a lung-breather, which our last example, Pona<ti<ix rhymis, although 

 a land-shell, is not. In the family to which it belongs, the breathing-organ is a 

 special gill-chamber modified for breathing air. Another peculiarity is that it has 

 a stony operculum, or door, to the mouth of the shell. The shell, which is about 

 half an inch long, pale brown in colour with a more or less purple tinge, is of 

 graceful shape, much marked by striations, with a twisted hollow up the middle 

 of the spire, and four and a half whorls, the mouth being circular or nearly so. 

 It is most numerous in limestone districts, and not so much an inhabitant of the 

 forest as of the field. 







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THE ROSE-CHAFER. 



