58 ACHATINA, EAST AFRICA. 



and they still strive there; one from the Botanic Garden is 

 figured, pi. 37, fig. 23. 



The date of the introduction of A. fulica, or as it is locally 

 known to the negroes, couroupa, in Mauritius is not so easily 

 settled. At the time of the visit of "La Coquille," 1823 or 

 1824, it was already * ' prodigieusement commune" and used 

 for food by the negroes. There was a tradition that the wife 

 of a former governor of the island, suffering from consump- 

 tion, had been prescribed a bouillon of couroupa, as snail 

 broth was at that time prescribed in France ; to supply which 

 a number of the snails had been brought from Madagascar. 

 This is probably to be regarded as one of the ways in which 

 the species might have reached Mauritius. 



In Mauritius and the Seychelles specimens have been 

 found with an open umbilicus, rugose within; the body- 

 whorl very much shortened, and the columella sinuous but 

 not truncate below (pi. 37, fig. 22). The shell is quite 

 heavy. The first three or four whorls are normal or nearly 

 so. In a specimen described by von Martens the abnormal 

 condition was thought to be traceable to a fracture in the 

 fifth whorl, but in two shells before me no such fracture 

 is visible. I am disposed to think the pathologic condition 

 may be due to a disease of the left lobe of the mantle, 

 possibly owing to some specific parasite of A. fulica. It is 

 strange that a similar condition has been observed in no 

 other species of Achatina. The names umbilicata Pfr. and 

 rediviva Mabille were based upon umbilicate specimens. 



49a. Var. COLOBA Pilsbry, n. v. PL 37, fig. 21. 



Similar to fulica in shape .and texture, but differing in the 

 extremely small size. Yellowish, copiously streaked with red- 

 brown, the streaks unequal, narrow and straight on the last 

 whorl, wider on the penult.; whorls 7, the last three puck- 

 ered below the sutures. Length 58, diam. 30.5, aperture 

 29 mm. 



Based upon two adult shells, 54 and 58 mm. long, and 

 a young specimen. 



