138 SUBULONA. 



Subulina perrieriana BGT., Malacologie de 1'Abyssinie, p. 

 81, pi. 9, f. 64, (1883). 



Notable for the swollen whorls, glossy, well striated shell, 

 small rounded aperture with the columella very much arched 

 and the lip bordered with black. 



Subgenus SUBULONA Martens, 1889. 



Subulona MARTENS, Conchol. Mittheil iii, p. 9, for 8. badia, 

 lenta and soliditiscula. Nachrbl. d. D. Malak. Ges. 1895, p. 

 184, for 8. silvicola, and p. 185, includes 8. castanea and mam- 

 boiensis. Beschalte Weichthiere Deutsch Ost-Afrika, p. 118 

 (1896 ?). 



Shell long, turrited, the upper part of the spire more or 

 less attenuated ; apex obtuse, rounded, the first whorl smooth, 

 the next two whorls sculptured with sharp, short folds below 

 the suture (or with this sculpture wanting) ; subsequent 

 whorls covered with a colored cuticle which is more or less 

 streaked with brown. Aperture . small, Achatinoid. 



Type 8. badia. Distribution, tropical Africa from the west 

 coast to the Great Lakes. 



Subulona was originally proposed in 1889, and again (as 

 new) in 1895. In 1896 von Martens, still treating it as a 

 section of Subulina, defines the group as "large species with 

 glossy brown epidermis. Similar to Homorus, but the last 

 whorl smaller." No mention is made of the presence or ab- 

 sence of subsutural plicae on the embryonic shell, but the 

 figure of 8. badia seems to indicate them. I have therefore 

 selected that species as type of the group. 



It seems likely, however, that species with smooth sutures 

 on the embryonic shell will also be found to belong in the 

 same group with those having crenulate sutures, since in some 

 cases there are very minute crenulations, apparently the 

 vestiges of former sculpture, while still other species have gone 

 further and have lost all trace of a ribbed ancestral type. In 

 actual practice, at the present time it is impossible to fully 

 utilize the embryonic characters in classification, for the reason 

 that they are not mentioned in most specific descriptions. 



Species no. 19, 26 to 33 and perhaps some others have plicate 



