JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY. 423 



ON SOME TESTACELL^. 

 By Dr. HEINRICH SIM ROTH, 



Honorary Member of the Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 

 (Read before the Conchological Society, Sept. 15th, 1891). 



Of the TestacclLe sent to me from Yelverton, Norfolk, and 

 collected by Rev S. Spencer Pearce, were three in alcohol; the 

 other three, which had been sent alive, arrived dead and in a 

 state of decomposition, but the dissections showed undoubtedly 

 that all were Testacella Jialiotidea. On this occasion I beg per- 

 mission to make some remarks upon the genus in general. My 

 treatise upon the Portuguese Slugs was written in 1887, but 

 printed in 1891 ; while in the press, the work of Lacaze-Duthiers 

 was published, and somewhat later that of Dr. Plate (Zoolog. 

 Jahrbiicher, bd. iv.) ; these treatises describe especially and in 

 detail the Testacelhe (and Dai/debardiw), while my attention 

 was directed to slugs generally. The pallial organs and the 

 integument have been treated upon in an excellent manner by 

 Plate, and necessitate the correction of my results in several 

 points. My studies on the reproductive system seemed to demon- 

 strate the possibility that the new species of Testacclhv, published 

 by Pollonera, were mere varieties, my opinion being founded on 

 my knowledge of the same organs in the Limaces and t-he com- 

 parison of Pollonera's figures. But now Plate has examined 

 some of the new species and has found still other internal 

 differences ; and on that account I do not hesitate to acknow- 

 ledge Pollonera's species. Indeed, Testacella is an ancient genus 

 (and is present in tertiary deposits), but its subterranean habits 

 give but little scope for dispersal, and it would therefore be 

 surprising if the genus was not divided into local forms. Per- 

 haps the 2^. dubia Poll, from Caveretto near Turin and the 

 T. barcinotiensis from Barcelona are only varieties of T. halio- 

 tidea ; the figures of the genital organs are very similar, and the 

 English Testacellce I have now examined are certainly the true 

 Jialiotidea, and all are in accord with the figure given by Gassies 

 and Fischer (Monog. Testacelle, pi. i, fig. 15), which Mr, Taylor 



