96 BULIMULUS-NAESIOTUS. 



word naturally inclined the hearer to suppose that it was suggested 1 

 by v7)fftd>Trj?, islanders, and on this assumption von Martens pro- 

 ceeded to modify the spelling to Nesiotes, which would be a proper 

 latinization of that Greek word. There is no rule of nomenclature 

 which authorizes any one to supply a gratuitous derivation for a 

 word published without any ; still less because the original does not 

 agree with the later assumption is any one authorized to modify or 

 destroy a name properly proposed in other respects. Consequently 

 von Marten's substitute cannot be accepted. 



" In describing his Bulimus aehatellinus, Forbes says that it ' is 

 unlike any known Bulimus, and its characters distinctly indicate 

 affinity with the Achatinellince.' Elsewhere he speaks of it ' dis- 

 tantly/ indicating ' affinity with the fauna of the Sandwich Islands.' 

 This was not an unnatural conclusion when drawn from a few speci- 

 mens, but, as is elsewhere shown in this paper, rests upon purely 

 superficial characters. Actually the species is American in its rela- 

 tions, and is very closely related in some varieties of B. nux, from 

 which Protean species it may even be an oifshoot. Consequently the 

 sectional name \_Rhaphiellus] proposed for it must fall into the syn- 

 onymy of that given earlier to B.nux and its allies. It is probably 

 due to the great rarity of this species that its situation in accepted 

 systems has not been challenged before this ; certainly if it had been 

 as common as B. nux, the facts could hardly have escaped attention 

 so long. I have not found anywhere any reasons stated for putting 

 the species into Buliminus rather than Bulimulus where it really 

 belongs. 



The name Omphalostyla was applied by Schliiter to Bulimi with 

 the pillar vertically twisted, and his sole example was the African 

 shell, since better known under the name Aehatina ustulata (Lam.) 

 Menke. It was probably to some accidental confusion of the spe- 

 cies with the Bulimus ustulatus Sby. of the Galapagos, that is due 

 the application by the brothers Adams of Schluter's name to the 



"The type of the section Pelecostoma Reibisch, is a Ncesiotus 

 which shows a ridge at the base of the pillar which gives a peculiar 

 channelled aspect to the adjacent part of the aperture. This feature 

 will be found more or less distinctly present in some specimens of 

 almost any Galapagos species of which a large number is examined, 

 showing that it is dynamic or individual, and not of systematic 

 value. The second species of this " section " is Leptinaria chat- 



