204 JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY, VOL. 12, NO. 8, OCTOBER, I908. 



Acanthinula lamellata (Jeffreys).— Another species whose 

 area of distribution in the district seems to be confined to Egger- 

 slack Wood ; at any rate, it has not been recorded from any other 

 part of the locality. The writer was very unfortunate with this 

 species ; although search was diligently made for it on the exact 

 spot where it .had been taken in abundance on two previous 

 occasions, not a single individual was to be found. Mr. J. W. 

 Jackson was the first to record this shell for the district, in October, 

 ^9°5 (y- ^f ^) ^'^^- ^^1 P- 361)) vvhen one specimen was taken on 

 dead branch of elm. In August 1906 {J. of C, vol. 12, p. 19), 

 Messrs. Booth and Rhodes collected more than thirty specimens 

 m a short time. Again on March 29th, 1907, a party of con- 

 chologists visited Eggerslack Wood, when the shells were found in 

 plenty. Mr. Jackson says : " On the occasion of our joint visit, 

 the shell was very much in evidence, almost every dead beech leaf 

 having one or more examples adhering to it. The shells were mostly 

 of a somewhat depressed form." (See Naturalist, May, 1907, p. 173). 



Collectors are not infrequently quite nonplussed when visiting 

 a locality where they expect to obtain a certain species, said to be 

 plentiful, to find that the most diligent search is often fruitless, 

 and the question arises — when is the right time to prosecute the 

 search, or rather, what are the climatic conditions (as regards hu- 

 midity, temperature, etc.), which exactly suit various species (the 

 one under discussion as an example), and bring them out some- 

 times in thousands, while at other times, under apparently similar 

 conditions, not a single individual is to be seen above ground. 

 And further, although one may be on the exact spot, with a know- 

 ledge that the animals are present in quantity all around, yet however 

 carefully and systematically the search may be carried on, failure 

 is the result. What becomes of the creatures, and where do they 

 manage to conceal themselves ? 



There is evidently a very large field here for experiment and 

 observation on the points mentioned, and one no doubt which 

 would throw very much light on the habits and conditions of life 

 of many species <->f snails, which at present remain a complete 

 enigma. There seems to be little or no information obtainable at 

 jn-esent dealing with these phases in the life-history of terrestrial 

 mollusca. 



Vallonia pulchella (Miiller). — Not by any means abundant 

 except in the second locality named, where, under stones and among 

 dead leaves on the top of a wall, this and the next species were 

 plentiful. Church-yard wall. Grange ; Haggs Lane, Cartmel ; Egger- 

 slack Wood (R.S.), /. of C, vol. 9, p. 113. 



