126 BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 



Carychium mininram. {Considerably enlarged ) 



Genus I. CARYCHIUM, Milller. 



Animal ; pale yellowish, minutely black-and- white-speckled, strongly 

 bilobed in front, carrying a minute glassy shell, head produced 

 into a ringed muzzle, eyes conspicuous black specks at the 

 hinder base of the upper tentacles, which are short and rather 

 thick, lower tentacles almost obsolete. 

 Shell ; subdiaphanous greenish white, of five to five and a half 

 conically turbinated whorls, which are smooth or finely striated ; 

 aperture three-toothed. 

 Carychium, first distinguished by Muller, is a minute bright-eyed 

 mollusk, carrying a conically turbinated glassy shell, with a rather 

 superficially toothed aperture. It is widely distributed throughout 

 the north temperate regions of both hemispheres, and it appears at 

 an elevation of similar temperature in the Himalayas. M. Bour- 

 guignat remarks, in his monograph of the genus, that the Carychia 

 are little sensible of cold or heat, since they inhabit the icy regions 

 of Siberia and Lapland, as well as the countries of India, and the 

 warmest parts of Italy and Spain. The range of temperature is 

 undoubtedly very considerable between Siberia and Spain ; but 

 these countries are the confines of a province of distribution com- 

 mon to many land mollusks. The habitat of Carychium in India 

 is on the shady side of mountains, at an elevation of from 5000 to 

 9000 feet. Only a few species are known, the most abnormal being 

 a globose form (genus Zospeum, Bourguignat) inhabiting the great 

 subterranean caverns of Carniola. 



British specimens of Carychium are all referred to one species : — 



1. minimum. Shell conically turbinated, of from five to five and 

 a half smooth or faintly striated whorls ; aperture three- 

 toothed. 



