THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



[SECOND SERIES.] 

 No. 6. JUNE 1848. 



XLII. — On a proposed Nerv Order of Gasteropodous Mollusca, 

 By Joshua Alder and Albany Hancock. 



[With two Plates.] 



At the last meeting of the British Association at Oxford we took 

 the liberty of bringing under the notice of the Natural History 

 Section two or three curious little mollusks, which had recently 

 been found by our friend Mr. W. P. Cocks on the coast near 

 Falmouth. These mollusks belong to a group very little known 

 to British naturalists, but interesting on account of their zoolo- 

 gical relations, and the modifications they show in the molluscan 

 type. Want of time prevented our making our communication 

 to the Oxford meeting so full as we could have wished, but 

 having since had the opportunity of making further investiga- 

 tions, particularly with regard to their anatomical characters, we 

 now offer our remarks on this group in a more detailed and 

 somewhat amended form. 



The three species which we then described we considered to 

 be new. On showing our drawings to Dr. Johnston, however, he 

 at once recognized our Chalidis nigricans to be his Limapontia 

 nigra, a species which we had previously not been able to make 

 out. There cannot be a doubt that our little animal belongs to 

 the genus Chalidis of Quatrefages ; these genera therefore must 

 be synonymous; and as the name oi Limapontia has precedence, 

 it becomes necessary to adopt it. The description and figure 

 published by Dr. Johnston in Loudon's ' Magazine of Natural 

 History,' taken from a single specimen, did not give the cha- 

 racters so well as could be wished ; it will, therefore, we trust not 

 be thought superfluous if we redescribe and figure it on the pre- 

 sent occasion, especially as this is the species upon which our ana- 

 tomical details are founded. 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. i. 27 



