98 Mr. W. H. Benson on Land Shells from the Mauritius. 



shaped. These parts are of a brownish-yellow colour, the base 

 of the falces being the brownest. The lip is nearly quadrate, 

 being rather broader at the base than at the apex, and has a 

 dark brown hue. The abdomen is oviform, thinly clothed with 

 hairs, convex above, and projects over the base of the cephalo- 

 thorax ; it has a brownish-black hue on the upper part, with an 

 obscure mark of a quadrilateral figure and yellow-brown colour 

 at the anterior extremity ; and between this mark and the spin- 

 ners there is a series of obscure, curved, yellow-brown lines, 

 having their convexity directed forwards ; the under part is of a 

 yellowish-brown colour, strongly tinged with dark brown at its 

 posterior extremity, and the spinners, which are short, have a 

 pale yellow hue. 



The Rev, 0. P. Cambridge took this spider at Lyndhurst, in 

 the New Forest, in September 1858; and it was sent to me in 

 the same year by Mr. R. H. Meade. 



XIII. — Descriptions of several new Land Shells from the Mauri- 

 tius. By W. H. Benson, Esq. 



That the land-shells of the circumscribed island of Mauritius 

 are as yet unexhausted, may be surmised from its having lately 

 yielded the following species, some of them of typical forms not 

 previously known among its testaceous productions. I am in- 

 debted to my friend Sir David W. Barclay for the opportunity 

 of describing them. 



Helix Caldwelli, Barclay, MSS. 



Testa aperte umbilicata, orbiculato-depressa, confertim oblique si- 

 nuate- costata, costis crassiusculis elevatis, sub epidermide fulvo- 

 albida ; spira planulata, sutura leviter impressa ; anfractibus 6 

 vix convexiusculis, ultimo antice majore, depresso, ad peripberiam 

 valde rotundato, subtus convexo ; apertura obliqua, ovato-lunata, 

 peristomate sinuato, superne antice arcuato, depresso, ad dextram 

 et infra reflexo, marginibus subapproximatis, basali iutus stricte 

 labiate, prepe celumellam dente late lamiuari intrersum flectente 

 munite ; umbilico infundibuliformi. 



Diam. major 9, minor 7^, axis 3^ mill. 



Habitat in sylvis insulee Mauritii. 



Found under the roots of trees in a pi'eviously unexplored 

 forest on the heights of Plaines Wilhelm, towards the head of 

 Tamarind River and of the gorges of the Black River, by Pro- 

 fessor Caldwell, of the Royal College, Port Louis, and named 

 after its zealous discoverer at the request of Sir D. Barclay. 

 The shell reminds the observer of more than one North American 



