THE 



JOURNAL OF MALACOLOGY. 



No, 2. June 2gTH, 1901. Vol. VIII. 



CLAUSILIA MIMICKED BY A MICROLEPIDOPTERON. 



By dr. H. SIMROTH, 



Leipzig. 



The examples of mimetic mollusca are constantly being augmented. 

 Some imitate stones, leaves, and seaweed, others snakes or parts of 

 Ascidians, Gorgoniidae, Adeniidae, etc. But the cases in which 

 animals of other classes imitate molluscs are comparatively rare. The 

 best known are those of Psijche helix, a Lepidopteron, and of Helico- 

 psyrlic, a Fliriiijanida whose larval cases have the form of a Helix 

 shell. I have added a further case,^ another Lepidopteron, a Coleo- 

 pliorida, imitating a Clausilia. The larval case had the form of the 

 Gastropod shell, the spire being represented by transverse lines. The 

 larvae and the Clausiliae were feeding upon the lichens of the same 

 rock, so that a bird's eye would confound them and spare both. 



In the present note I wish to record a further very interesting 

 example of this kind. 



When visiting with Dr. Heymons of Berlin the " doline " * of St. 

 Canzian in the Karst mountains north of Triest, I found a small object 

 adhering to the limestone wall, which for the moment I took for a 

 Clausilia, Dr. Heymons did also. The mimetic impression was perfect 

 in the dorsal view (Figs. A and B), a little, dark greyish-brown shell, 



I SB. Nat. Gesell. Leipzig, Bd. xlii — xiv, p. 45. 

 * " Dolines " are the characteristic funnel-shaped hollows of the Karsts. 



JouRN. OF Malac, 1901, vol. viii, No. 2. 



