118 BRITISH MOLLTJSKS. 



3. Vertigo pygmsea. Pygmy Vertigo. 



Shell ; minute, ovately cylindrical, slightly coinpressly nmbilicated, 

 reddish, brown or fulvons horny seinitrans- 

 parent, glossy, whorls four to five, rounded, © 



smooth ; aperture semiovate, with from four 

 to five teeth, only one of which is on the body 

 whorl, fip thinly expanded. 



Vertigo quinquedentata, Studer (1789), Faun. Helv. in 

 Coxe, Trav. Switz. vol. iii. p. 432 (without cha- 

 racters). 



Pupa pygmcea, Draparnaud (1801), Tall. Moll. p. 57. 



Vertigo pygmcea, Ferassac (1807), Ess. MetJi. p. 124. 



Helix (Isthmia) cylindrica, Gray (1821), Lond. Med. Sepos. vol. xv. p. 239 

 (not of Ferassac nor Studer). 



Vertigo similis, Ferassac (1822), Tail. Syst. p. 68. 



Alcea vulgaris, Jeffreys (1830), Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xvi. p. 359. 



Vertigo vulgaris, Leach (1831), Turt. Man. p. 129. 



Alcea pygmcea, Beck (1837), Ind. Moll. p. 95. 



Vertigo (Isthmia) pygmcea, Gray (1840), Turt. Man. p. 199. 



Stomodonta pygmcea, Mermet (1843), Moll. Pyr.-Occid. p. 55. 



Hah. Throughout Eiirope. Siberia. Azores. (Under logs of wood or 

 stone3 in wet places.) 



Of all our nine species of Vertigo, this is the commonest and most 

 widely diffused. Specimens may be collected in almost any part 

 of Britain, sometimes by placing a log of wood upon the wet grass 

 at night, and examining it in the morning. On the Continent it 

 ranges from Sweden to Sicily and the Azores, and it appears also 

 in Siberia. The animal is of the prevailing colour of the genus, 

 dusky grey, speckled with black. The shell is extremely small, 

 ovately cylindrical, and with from four to five teeth in the aperture, 

 only one of which is on the body whorl. 



" V. joygmcea," says Mr. Jeffreys, "is a tolerably active and lively 

 little creature, crawling by jerks, and carrying its shell nearly up- 

 right. It makes, like its congeners, a fUmy epiphragm, but which is 

 not iridescent. It may be in some degree considered a subalpine 

 form, as it occurs at considerable heights. Dr. Johnston found it at 

 the top of a mountain in East Lothian, at an elevation of 1200 feet, 

 and M. Puton on the Yosges at 1640 feet." 



