I03 



THE NON-MARINE MOLLUSCA OF WORCESTERSHIRE. 



By NOR^FAN G. MADDEN. 



(Read before the Socielj', Dec. nth, 1912). 



So far as I have been able to find, very little has been published 

 regarding the molluscan fauna of Worcestershire, and I have con- 

 sequently been induced to collect any available records, and place 

 them along with my own observations which extend over the last 

 seven or eight years. Although the geology, botany (both phanero- 

 gamic and cryptogamic), entomology and ornithology of the county 

 have received a great amount of attention, the mollusca have been 

 very much neglected. In the Census published in the Journal of 

 ConcJiology o{]7x.\-\w7x.x)'^ 1911, Worcestershire is credited with ninety- 

 five species, to which at least ten more should be added if our old 

 records could be verified. 



The late Mr. C. Reece, of Worcester, did a considerable amount 

 of concliological work in the county, principally in the southern por- 

 tion, and his collection of local shells is now in the Worcester 

 Museum. Mr. T. E. Doeg, of Evesham, has recorded in the Guide 

 to Evesham (Homeland Series, 1908) between fifty and sixty species 

 from the neighbourhood of Evesham and Bredon Hill. My own 

 collecting has been principally done in the parish of Earls Croome, 

 which lies nine miles south of the city of Worcester and one mile 

 east of the Severn, and also in the Malvern district. 



In the " Transactions of the Malvern Field Club," for 1853-70, 

 there is a list of Malvern shells, compiled by Dr. Griffiths, but unfor- 

 tunately several of these records are highly doubtful. Such species 

 as HeJicella barbara, Claiisilia biplicata, Pupa anglica, and Unio 

 margaritifer, are almost certainly erroneously recorded. By far the 

 most complete list published is that in the "Victoria County History," 

 vol. i., compiled by Mr. B. B. Woodward, and published in 1901. 

 This list is evidently based on Dr. Griffiths' list, many of the localities 

 being quoted from his catalogue, including Pupa secale, which Mr. 

 Woodward states is a doubtful record. It seems quite possible that 

 this species has been found near West Malvern, in the limestone 

 district, but though this locality may be said to be in the " Malvern 

 district," it is not in Worcestershire, but in Herefordshire. 



It may be well to give a rough description of the geology of the 



' county. The Keuper Marls stretch from the Malvern Hills for some 



four miles east of the Severn, whence the Lower Lias becomes the 



principal formation across the southern half of the county. In the 



north-western part we have the Bunter sandstone in the neighbour- 



