HELIX-AMPELITA. 



27 



(2.) Basal lip arcuate, passing gradually into the columellar 

 margin, not angled at their junction. H. chlorozona, vesconis, 

 robillardi, madagascariensw. 



H. OMPHALODES Pfeiffer. PL 4, figs. 58, 59, 60. 



Shell broadly umbilicate, depressed, rather solid, finely striate, 

 white under a light, deciduous yellow epidermis, with a reddish - 

 brown girdle at the periphery and at the umbilicus. Spire* very lit- 

 tle elevated, with small obtuse apex ; whorls 5, nearly flat, the last 

 obtusely carinated, scarcely perceptibly descending in front, beneath 

 somewhat more convex, indistinctly granulated by fine spiral-lines, 

 somewhat compressed around the broad umbilicus, which is dark 

 brown inside. Aperture very oblique, lunate-oval, white inside. 

 Peristome narrowly reflexed, brownish, with converging margins. 

 (Pfr.) Alt. 16, diam. 41 mill. 



Madagascar. 



H. omphalodes PFR., Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1845, p. 64 ; Mono- 

 graphia i, p. 374 ; Conchylien Cabinet, p. 56, t. 75, f. 9-11. PHIL- 

 IPP'I, Abbild. u. Beschreib. ii, p. 183, Helix t. 9, f. 1. MOUSSON 

 Journal de Conch. 1882, p. 40. CROSSE (with var. loucoubeensis) 

 Journ. de Conchyl. 1881, p. 195. 



The more prominent characters are the thin but strong shell, with 

 yellowish, rather deciduous epidermis, and the base finely granula- 

 ted by close spiral lines. 



The figures of Philippi and of Pfeiffer agree in representing the 

 form described above. 



Mousson says of the specimens of this species examined by him: 

 They are a little more flattened than the figures, and have the 

 peripheral angle a little more marked ; they do not have the narrow 

 dark line at the circumference. The other characters, yellowish 

 color, brown umbilicus, subsutural dark line and fine sculpture of 

 the base are present. This species is closely allied to H. calypso Pfr., 

 but that form is smaller, more compact, without sculpture, and hav- 

 ing broad bands at periphery and suture, which fade into the ground- 

 color at their edges. 



Var. LOUCOUBEENSIS Crosse. PL 62, fig. 38. 



Shell broadly and perspectively umbilicated, umbilicus about 3- 

 the diameter of the shell ; rather thin, brown or nearly black, 

 unicolored, opaque, the base shining ; spire depressed-convex ; apex 

 plane ; whorls 5, nearly plane, separated by slightly impressed 



