FAMILY COLIMACEA. 77 



and is quoted by Gerstfeldt in his list of Siberian shells collected at 

 the mouth of the Ussuri, a tributary of the Amoor. 



15. Helix sericea. Sillcy Helix. 



Shell ; minutely deeply umbilicated, subglobose, whitish horny, 

 subhyaline, covered with short bristly silky hairs, 

 spire conoidly convex, whorls five to six, rather 

 broad, obliquely closely striated; aperture 

 broadly lunar, lip thinly reflected, basal margin 

 partially dilated round the umbilicus. 



Helix sericea, Draparnaud (1801), Tabl. Moll. p. 85. 



Helix albula, Studer (1820), Kurz. Terz. p. 87. 



Helix granidata, Alder (1830), Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. 

 Northumb. vol. i. p. 39. 



Helix globularis, Jeffrey (1833), Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xvi. 

 p. 507. 



Monacha sericea, Eitzinger (1833), Syst. Verz. p. 95. 



Fruticieola sericea, Held (1837), Isis, p. 914. 



Helix piligera, Ziegler (1839), Anton, Yerz. Conch, p. 36. 



Helix ( Zenobia) sericea, Moquin-Tandon (1855), Hist. Moll. p. 219. pi. xvii. 

 f. 6, 7. 



Hab. Throughout Europe, but local and rare. England, principally in the 

 western and southern counties. Irkutsk, Siberia. Caucasus. (Vicinity 

 of damp mossy banks, and under stones.) 



Compared with S. hispida, the shell of this species may be at 

 once recognized by its globose form, more pallid subhyaline sub- 

 stance, and minute umbilicus. The hair with which it is covered is 

 not a fine down, but bristly and silky, rather distantly rooted on the 

 surface, so firmly so in some specimens as to render them slightly 

 granular to the touch. Moquin-Tandon describes the animal as 

 being timid, irritable, slow, carrying the shell a little inclined when 

 crawling. 



The species is not common, and the records of its geographical 

 range are comparatively few. It appears to be rather scattered in 

 England, principally in the southern and western counties, local 

 and rare. Its presence in Ireland is rather doubtful, although 

 Mr. Thompson gives Lagan, near Belfast. Gerstfeldt gives Irkutsk 

 as its Siberian habitat, and Krynicki the Caucasus, but the species 

 was formerly, and is still, frequently confounded with H. liispidus. 



