HELIX POLYMITA. 53 



simple, not expanded nor reflexed, except at the axis, where it is re- 

 flexed and closely adnate over the umbilical tract. Type, H. picta 

 Born. 



Polymita BECK, Index Moll. p. 44. 

 H. PICTA Born. PI. 15, figs. 5-15 ; pi. 13, figs. 75, 77. 



Imperforate, globose, inflated, thin but strong, opaque, almost 

 smooth, with delicate incremental marks. Color very variable and 

 bright ; usually white, gamboge or lemon-yellow, vermillion, flesh 

 colored, pink, olive or green, with a spiral dark, white or colored 

 subsutural border, a supra-peripheral band of white, dark or of both, 

 the axis surrounded by a tract of the same colors ; positions of form- 

 er peristomes marked by one or several oblique dark streaks. Spire 

 low, obtuse; whorls 3*, very rapidly enlarging, the last descending 

 anteriorly ; aperture very large, oblique, rounded, white or colored 

 inside; peristome simple but obtuse. 



Alt. 30, diam. 33 mill. Dimensions of an average specimen, alt. 

 23, diam. 26 mill. 



South-eastern Cuba. 



H. picta BORN, Mus. Test. Cces. p. 386, 1. 15, f. 17, 18 FER. Hist. 

 t. 9B, f. 6, 7 ; t. 11 A, f. 14 ; 1. 12-14, f. 1-5 ; t. 25A, f. 1-6 etc.-ORB. 

 Moll. Cuba, p. 160, t. 5, f. 1-3. PFEIFFER, Conchyl. Cab. t. 27, f. 

 1-8 ; Monogr. i, p. 26 ; v, p. 49 ; Novit. Conch p. 296, t. 72, f. 4, 5, 

 19, 20. REEVE, f. 256. ARANGO, Fauna, p. 61. BINNEY, Ann. 

 Lye. N. H. N. Y. x, t. 16, f. 14 ; Proc. Phil. Acad. 1874, p. 56 ; Ann. 

 N. Y. Acad. Sci. iii, p. 90, t. 3, f.' E. H. venusta GmeL, Syst. Nat. 

 xiii, p. 3650. H. sulphurosa MORELET, Test, noviss. no. i, p. 8. 

 PFEIFFER in Conchyl. Cab. t. 158, f. 1, 2; Novit. Conch, p. 239, t. 

 61, f. 13, 14 ; Monograph iii, p. 29 ; v, p. 49. REEVE, f. 590.-JJ. 

 picta var. CHENU, III. Conch. Helix, t. 3, f. 1. 



Most of the color-patterns of this beautiful shell are figured on 

 plate 15. There is one other notable style of painting, shown in 

 fig. 58, pi. 32, consisting of numerous dark chestnut bands and lines 

 on a light ground. The inner whorls are frequently lighter and 

 speckled with dark dots, like H. muscarum. There are usually pre- 

 sent one or several conspicuous dark oblique streaks upon the last 

 whorl, but these are sometimes wanting. 



According to Arango, the form prevalent in Baracoa is large, 

 shining, whitish or rosy with dark streaks ; near Cape Maisi the 

 shells are dull, with a velvety aspect ; in the district of Jauco the 



