4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 95 



DESCRIPTION OF (]ENKRA AND SPECIES 

 BLANFORDIA 



Gcnoixpc. — Tonticliia hciisoiii A. Adams. 



The name Blanfordia has so frequently l)een associated with mol- 

 kisks serving as intermediate hosts for the Asiatic blood fluke that 

 [ have felt it necessary here to go into convincing details to show that 

 there is no excuse for this. The species belonging to this genus form 

 a compact small group whose distribution is limited to northern 

 Japan, north of the schistosomo])horous Katayamas. 



In 1861 Arthur /Vdams ( i . p. 308)', a ship surgeon in the British 

 Navy and an indefatigable student of moUusks. which he appears to 

 have gathered in every port made by ships on which he traveled, 

 described among other things two new species from Japan, namely. 

 Toinichia hcnsoui from Hokkaido and Tonikhia japonica from Sado. 

 blinding that these two species were not congeneric with Tomichia, 

 he created for them in [863 (J, p. 424) the new genus Blanfordia. 

 Tomichia japonica Adams thus l)ecame Blanfordia japonica Adams 

 anil Toinichia hcnsoni Adams, Hhtnfordia bcnsoni Adams. Here he 

 states : 



In Jai)an, at Matsumai and Sado, I discovered two species of terrestrial Mol- 

 lusks, with similar animals, which (in the "Annals" for October 1861) I referred 

 to the genus Tomichia, Benson, a form of Truncatellidae from the Cape [Good 

 Hope]. Since then, I have sent specimens of the shells, accompanied by drawings 

 of the animals, to Mr. Benson; and he assures mc that his Tomichiac arc verj' 

 different. He writes to me as follows : 



"A comparison of the animal of the Cape Toinichia with that of your Japanese 

 shells leads to the impression that your discoveries belong to a distinct genus, 

 which, but for the operculum, may rather be regarded as a land-shell. I have 

 examined a specimen, and find it horny and subspiral in construction, the same 

 as that of Toinichia. but more solid." 



After describing the genus, Adams states that the tentacles are 

 short and triangular, that the eyes are sessile on the upper base of 

 the tentacles, that the foot is lobed on each side in front with a 

 posterior dorsal lobe which bears the operculum. He further states 

 that both of his species were found on damp banks covered with 

 vegetation in rocky situations near the sea. He dedicated the genus 

 to his friend, W. T. Blanford, a student of Indian mollusks, and 



Numbers in parentheses refer to list of references cited at end of paper. 



