44 



FIELD NOTES ON HELICODONTA OBVOLUTA Miiller. 



( Concluded from p. 36). 



By H. BEESTON. 

 (Read before the Society, P^ebniary i4ih, 1917). 



In his Manual, page 59, Mr. L. E. Adams says " I have seen a 

 young sinistrorse specimen in the possession of Mr. W. Heathcote, of 

 Preston, which is said to have come from Mitcham in Surrey." If 

 this record can be reUed on as to locaUty, then the range of H. obvo- 

 hita is much extended, and includes a portion of the North Downs ; 

 hence it is quite possible that if diligent search were made in the 

 wooded districts of the North Downs and the intervening country, 

 the shell might be found in suitable places. The sinistrorse speci- 

 men was discovered in a tube containing shells of H. obvoluta, 

 purchased in April, 1891, at Stevens' Rooms, but no further informa- 

 tion regarding them is forthcoming, except that the tube was marked 

 "Mitcham, Surrey." I am of opinion that Mitcham is a misprint for 

 Ditcham. 



There are two other records from the North Downs, viz., one from 

 Norbury Park, near Dorking, Surrey, stated on the authority of Mr. 

 Charles Pannell (yxdejourn. of Conch., vol. 10, p. 332), and the other 

 from Druids' Grove, also near Dorking, recorded by Mr. K. McKean 

 (vide /ourn. of Conc/i., as above). 



Up to the present the most southerly point of its range is Wood 

 End, at the foot of the South Downs, a mile north of West Ashling, 

 Sussex. The late Mr. Wm. Jeffery recorded it from this place, which 

 is less than 200 feet above sea-level, and not more than three miles 

 from the sea. Only dead shells were obtained. Living specimens I 

 have myself taken from a small beech hanger (William Wood) near 

 the village of Stoughton, Sussex. I am indebted to Mr. Jeffery's son, 

 himself a keen naturalist, for the exact localities named above. 



\nJourn. of Conch., vol. 3, p. 316 (" MoUusca of Western Sussex") 

 I note that under H. obvoluta Mr. Jeffery says : " I have occasionally 

 found dead shells for the last ten years on a bank at Woodend, at the 

 base of the Downs, but no living specimens, even after many careful 

 searches during that period, so that I conclude it has died out — it 

 may have been introduced there." 



It seems very plausible that the range of the species southward and 

 westward was at one time and may even now be very much more 

 extensive than is generally supposed ; probably it inhabited that 



