JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY. 229 



THE LAND AND FRESHWATER MOLLUSCA OF 



THE MALTESE ISLANDS. 



By CAPT. E. F. BECHER, R.A., F.Z.S. 



The number of land and freshwater shells to be found in 

 the Maltese Islands {i.e., Malta, Commo, and Gozo), is small, 

 being not much above forty, but amongst these few there are 

 six of exceptional interest, viz., H. meliiensis Fer., H. Spratti 

 Pfeififer, Clausilia scalaris Pfeiffer, C. maniotica Gulia, Physa 

 melitensis Ben., Paludina melitensis Benoit, being peculiar, as 

 far as is at present known, to the group. 



A list of the Maltese mollusca was published by Caruana, 

 in 1867, this is ' Enumeratio ordinata MoUuscorum Gaulo- 

 Melitensium of the late Guiseppe Mamo,' it is only now to be 

 found in the libraries. Major Feilden has also published an 

 article on the land and freshwater mollusca of the Maltese group, 

 in the 'Zoologist ' of May, 1879 ; this is to be found at Malta, 

 in the bound-up volumes of the ' Zoologist ' in the Garrison 

 Library at Valletta. There is a Catalogue of the Land and 

 Freshwater Shells of Sicily, by L. Benoit, and one of the neigh- 

 bourhood of Palermo, by P. Calcara ; I was enabled to peruse 

 these two lists by the courtesy of Dr. Gulia, Professor of Natural 

 History at the Valletta University. Issel in 1868 pubhshed 

 * Dei Molluschi terestri e d'acqua dolce racolti nello Archi- 

 pelago di Malta,' this I have not seen. 



In Malta there are the following collections of local land 

 and freshwater shells : — in the Valletta University Museum, 

 Maltese, moderate, Sicilian, good ; in the Public Library, 

 Maltese, bad. 



I have found all the species mentioned in Caruana's list 

 except H. turrita Phil, which is noted as very rare; H. 

 neritoides Gualtieri ; Pupa polyodon Drap., also said to be very 

 rare ; Turbo conoidea Broc, which Mamo states he has never 

 observed ; Cyclostoma pygtncea Michaud (the locality given is 



