CHARLES T. SIMPSON'S TYPES IN THE 

 MOLLUSCAN GENUS LIGUUS 



By FREDERICK M. BAYER 



Assistant Curator, Division of Marine Invertebrates 



U. S. National Museum 



formerly 



Research Assistant 

 Biological Museum of the University of Miami 



. [With One Plate] 



Charles Torrey Simpson collected his first Liguus in the year 1885, 

 and in the following 30 years made an extensive collection of these 

 snails. He tramped many times from Key Largo to Key West and 

 back, along the Overseas Railway, collecting on every island and in 

 every hammock along the way. In addition, he collected in Cuba and 

 in Haiti, gathering material on the variation and distribution of the 

 various species and races of Liguus. He also was well acquainted 

 with most of the early collectors, who materially aided him with in- 

 formation and with specimens from their own cabinets. In this way, 

 Dr. Simpson became as familiar with the tree snails as was any other 

 student at that time. 



When his review of the genus ^ was published in 1929, Dr. Simp- 

 son saw that the tree snails in Florida were fighting a losing battle 

 for existence, and that those in Cuba were being exterminated over 

 great areas. His fears that the genus might become extinct have 

 come close to realization, for today many of the forms have been so 

 extensively collected as to be nearly, if not quite, extinct. The ham- 

 mocks have been cleared, and even where the snails have not been 

 deliberately collected, they have been wiped out as innocent by- 

 standers. Great tracts of land, such as Paradise Key, Pinecrest, and 

 areas near The Big Cypress, have been subject to devastating fires, 

 due, at least in part, to man's interest in draining the vast Ever- 

 glades. Other areas are being exploited for their timber, and this 

 process clears the land, which promotes evaporation and thus hastens 

 the drying and burning sequence. All these factors are contributing 

 to the destruction of these arboreal mollusks in Florida, their only 

 native habitat within the United States. 



1 The Florida tree snails of the genus Liguus. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. yz, 

 art. 20, pp. 1-44, 4 col. pis., 1929. 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS, VOL. 107, NO. 16 



