176 ACHATINELLA SOWERBYANA. 



aperture 8 mm. long, 4 wide. Sandwich Is., Frick. (Pfr.) 



Oahu : Punaluu to Kaipapau ; various varieties as far 

 northwest as Kahuku and Pupukea. 



Achatinella sowerbyana PFR. ? P. Z. S. 1855, p. 4, pi. 30, i. 

 14; Malak. BL, 1855, p. 65; Monogr., iv, 527. -^BALDWIN, 

 Catalogue, p. 6 (Kalihi?). Bulimella sowerbiana Pfr., 

 HARTMAN, Proc. A. N. S. Phila,, 1888, p. 31. 



Achatinella oviformis Newcomb, PFR., P. Z. S., 1855, D. 

 208; Monogr., iv, 540. NEWCOMB, Ann. Lye. N. H. of N. Y.,. 

 vi, p. 147 (as a synonym of A. sowerbyana Pfr.). SYKES, 

 Fauna Hawaiiensis, p. 309. A. multicolor PFR., in part, P. 

 Z. S., 1855, pi. 30, f . lla ; cf. Sykes, Fauna Hawaiiensis, Mol- 

 lusca, p. 309. 



Ffeiffer described var. b as " a little smaller, yellow- whit- 

 ish, the base chestnut or greenish." His fig. 14a represents 

 this color-form, and is reproduced in pi. 30, fig. 14a. 



A. sowerbyana is a handsome shell, very little known before 

 the last few years, but now familiar by the splendid series in 

 the collections of Hon. L. A. Thurston and Irwin Spalding. 

 It is invariably sinistral, typically wax yellow or sulphine 

 yellow, fading upwards, with 'the sutural margin brown, sum- 

 mit usually pale or white. The surface has 1 the gloss of var- 

 nish, and the lip and columella are of a luscious pink tint 

 which has given it the local name of ' ' watermelon shell. ' ' It 

 is smaller and more slender than other smooth Buli- 

 mellas of the region. The lip-rib is narrow. It is no doubt 

 related to A. fuscobasis, of the eastern end of the range, but 

 I agree with all the island conchologists in holding the two 

 distinct. Like fuscobasis, it lives mainly on the heights. 



Frick, who supplied Pf eiffer 's type, gave no locality, (but it 

 seems likely that he got the species in some valley of the 

 Kaipapau-Kaliuwaa region where it reached a lower level 

 than usual, and thus came within- the zone accessible to the 

 early collectors. 



Plate 30, fig. 14 is reproduced from Pfeiffer's type figure. 

 PI. 34, fig. 9, from the (bottom of the central ravines of Kai- 

 papau, and fig. 10, Kaliuwaa, near the Castle trail, are prob- 

 ably from as near where Frick took the original lot as a mod- 



