BOTHRIEMBRYON. 



ably the primordial sculpture ; the finely netted or thimble-like pat- 

 tern of kingi and its allies having been derived therefrom. B. gunni 

 and B. spenceri retain the ancestral nepionic sculpture, and are 

 exactly like some American species in pattern. 



The nepionic sculpture of B. phytoides, brazieri, bullet, baconi, 

 angasianus and mastersi is unknown to me. 



The name Liparus, by which this group has been known hitherto, 

 was originally proposed for B. atomatus Gray, a species of Panda, 

 and B. fuvannii Lam., the type of the later .genus Leucotanius. 

 Pfeiffer and the Adams brothers retained the group in Albers' 

 sense ; but in von Martens' edition of Albers' Die Heliceen, the type 

 is stated to be B. inftalus (a species not in the group as at first con- 

 stituted), and Liparus is 'subordinated to Buliminus, following; the 

 erroneous theory that the Bulimulm group was not represented in the 

 Eastern Hemisphere. Were Liparus a valid name in Mollusca, it 

 would supersede Leucotcenius or Panda; but being long preoccupied 

 for a genus of weevils, it need occupy us no longer. The name 

 Botliriembryon refers to the pitted sculpture of the shell within the 



egg- 



The species are confined to the southern portion of Western Aus- 

 tralia, with the exception of a few forms following the coast eastward 

 along South Australia, and a species in Tasmania. Tropical Australia 

 (the Northern Territory of South Australia and Queensland), and 

 eastern Australia (New South Wales and Victoria), are without 

 representatives of the genus. 



That the group is an immigrant from South America seems to be 

 the only tenable hypothesis to account for its geographic location and 

 BuUiuuLus-\\kQ characters. Like the Bulimuli of Argentina, the shell 

 in Bothriembryon has retained the simple ancestral form, probably 

 because of the perpetuation of the terrestrial, or at all events non- 

 arboreal, habits of its South American forefathers. The Placosiylus 

 branch of the same stock, under the influence of subtropical condi- 

 tions, has meantime become greatly modified in its later stages of 

 growth, while the stage of infancy remains nearly unchanged. 



The most prolific group of species is that of B. inflatm ; and here 

 the specific lines are more than usually arbitrary. Hedley groups 

 melo, physoides, castanens, bulla and rhodostoma under B. wflatus as 

 varieties. Perhaps this may be a more synthetic treatment than 

 present knowledge warrants; but it is significant of the broad range 



