ACHATINA. 3 



shown by the advance of adult sculpture upon the nepionic 

 whorls. 



PARASITES: Professor 0. F. Cook has described a wingless 

 fly, Wandolleckia achatince, which he found running about 

 on Achatina variegata in the deep forests of Liberia (Science, 

 N. S., vi, 1897, p. 886). Stuhlraann has observed green 

 mites upon several East African species, but they have not 

 been studied. 



The species of Achatina " appear to grade one into the 

 other, and the more examples we have, the greater the 

 trouble becomes. The genus is spread over the greater part 

 of Central and West Africa, as far north as Senegambia, and 

 each district seems to produce its special race, a modification 

 of some neighboring form, so that the separation of species 

 becomes more and more difficult through the discovery of 

 intermediate links from every fresh locality" (E. A. Smith, 

 P. Z. S., 1899, p. 579). 



Nomenclature. 



Of the names proposed to include species of this genus, 

 Ampulla of Bolten has precedence, or would have if that 

 catalogue were an acceptable source of nomenclature. It 

 contained A. achatina Gm., Conch. Cab., ix, pi. 118, f. 1012- 

 13 ; A. purpura Bolt, op. cit., f . 1017-18 ; A. kambeul Bolt., 

 op. cit., f. 1024-25; A. zebra Bolt, C. Cab., f. 1014; A. 

 priamus Bolt. = Halia, and several synonymous names. 

 Lamarck's elimination of the Achatinas from this group ren- 

 ders further consideration of it unnecessary in this connec- 

 tion. In my opinion, neither the Museum Boltenianum nor 

 the Museum Calonnianum are to be regarded as scientific 

 literature, any more than dealer's catalogues at the present 

 day. The two works mentioned stand or fall together; both 

 are very rare, the Museum Boltenianum being apparently 

 the scarcer of the two. 



Achatium of Link was proposed in an excessively rare 

 work, of which almost the whole edition is known to have 

 been destroyed by fire. Up to this time the single species 

 Butta achatina L. had been referred to Achatina Lam. Now 



