366 JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY. 



NOTE ON ''ANODON HERCULEUS Gerstford » (?) 

 Bv EDGAR A. SMITH, F.Z.S., &c. 



Zoological Department, British Museum. 



In the last part of this Journal Mr. Darbishire made a few 

 observations on some valves of a species of Unionid^e, to which 

 he has applied the above name. He has since very liberally 

 presented two of them to the British Museum, and I am thus 

 enabled as far as Reeve's book, the ' Conchologia Iconica," is 

 concerned, to concur with Mr. Darbishire's identification of the 

 species. It may however be of use to point out that the 

 Monograph of Ajiodon in that work was written by Sowerby 

 and not by Reeve, the latter author's last monograph being 

 that of Tornatella, which together with seven others occupy the 

 first half of the fifteenth volume; the last half of that volume 

 and th$ five concluding volumes were also produced by the late 

 G. B. Sowerby. No species bearing the name ' Anodon her- 

 culeus ' was ever published by ' Gerstford,' which is apparently 

 a mis-spelling of Gerstfeldt, who in his account of the land and 

 freshwater mollusca of Siberia and Amurland of course enumer- 

 ates this species, which was originally described as Anodonta 

 herculea by Middendorff. It is not a true Anodonta, but belongs 

 to Dipsas {^^Symphynota^^Barbala), and is considered by Lea 

 synonymous with the well-known D. plicatus, but whether rightly 

 so or not I do not pretend to say, not having sufficient material 

 upon which to base a satisfactory opinion, although I am inclined 

 to believe the determination is correct. — Aug. loth, 1885. 



Planorbis subangulatus at Malta. — Capt. Becher, 

 in his paper on Maltese shells, only mentions one species of 

 Planorbis, a form of F. glaber, as inhabiting that Island. There 

 are six shells in the British Museum labelled " subangulatus 

 Phil, Malta," which are in no way related to P. glaber, but 

 appear to resemble a light form of P. coniplanatus v. rhombea, 

 but are possibly distinct from that species. — T. D. A. Cockerell, 

 M.C.S.,July 24th, 1885. 



J.C, iv., October, 1885 



