On Indian and Burmese Species of Assiminea. 381 



C, canines, 



d. C, deciduous canines. 



1, 2, 3 P.M., premolars. 



1, 2, 3 d. P.M., deciduous premolars (commonly called deciduous 



molars). 

 1, 2, 3 M.. molars. 



LVI. — Descriptions of some Indian and Burmese Species of Assi- 

 minea. By William T. Blanford, A.R.S.M., F.G.S. 



In Dr. E. von Martens's " Conchological Gleanings," published 

 in the March Number of the ' Annals ' for 1866 (ser. 3. vol. xvii. 

 p. 202), the first portion of the paper consists of observations 

 " on some species of Assiminea." Two new species from China 

 and Singapore are described, and a list is added of the forms 

 belonging to this genus known to the author. Amongst these 

 the only species mentioned as occurring in India or Burma is 

 the well-known A. Francisci, Gray*, from the estuary of the 

 Ganges. The object of the present notice is to call attention to 

 some species of the genus inhabiting Bombay and described 

 some years since by Dr. Leith, and to describe two other species 

 — one from Bombay, collected by the Rev. Mr. Fairbank, and 

 another obtained by myself, in 1862, from the estuary of the 

 Irawaddy in Burma. 



Three species from Bombay were described by Dr. Leith as a 

 new generic form, under the name Optediceros, in the ' Journal 

 of, the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 'f, vol. v. 

 p. 145. The paper, I learn from Dr. Leith, was presented to 

 the Society in 1853, and published in July of that year, although 

 the completed volume of the Society's Journal bears the date 

 1857. It is entitled "Note on an apparently New Genus of 

 Gasteropod, by A. H. Leith, Esq., M.D." The genus is de- 

 scribed as " a minute moUusk inhabiting the shores of Bombay 

 Island, by the edges of salt-water pools, moving on the moist 

 earth or rocks, and taking shelter under stones," and is distin- 

 guished by the following characters : — 



* Called A. Francesia, Benson, by 11. & A. Adams in the *Gen. Rec. 

 Moll.,' A. Francesia, Gray, by Benson in the ' Journal of the Asiatic Society 

 of Bengal,' and A. Francesi, Gray, by Troschel (Geb. d. Schncck.). I can- 

 not procure the. work containing the original description in Calcutta. 



t That Dr. von Martens was unacquainted with this j)apcr is evident 

 (indeed it appears to have entirely escaped the observation of concho- 

 logists), the description of the animal and operculum being excellent and 

 amply sufficient to prove its identity with Assiminea. It is greatly to be 

 regretted that this paper is, so far as I am aware, the only ])ublished con- 

 tribution to malacological science by one of the most careful observers in 

 India. That the paper should have been overlooked is not surprising, as 

 the Bombay Journal, though rich in archaeological and geological papers, 

 contains but few zoological contributions. 



