184 Transactions. — Zoology. 



Art. VIII. — Descriptions of new Land Shells. By Professor F. W. Hutton. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 19th October, 1882.] 

 During the last six months I have received many land shells from several 

 friends, but especially from Mr. T. F. Cheeseman of Auckland and Mr. K. 

 Helms of Greymouth, and amongst these shells are the following new 

 species. The most interesting are a species of Strobila, a genus hitherto, 

 I believe, known only in America and the West Indies, and two species of 

 Leptopoma, a genus of operculated land shells that occurs in New Guinea, 

 Borneo, and the Philippine Islands, but not hitherto recorded from New 

 Zealand. 



The dentition of these new species, together with others already de- 

 scribed, will form the subject of another paper which I hope to read to tbe 

 society next year. 



Sec. AULACOGNATHA. 



Patula tapirina, sp. nov. P. coma, Hutton, Trans. N.Z. Inst., xiv., 

 p. 130, pi. 3, fig. l (not of Gray). 



Shell subdiscoidal, broadly umbilicated, closely ribbed ; colour horny- 

 brown, sub-radiated with reddish spots. Spire very slightly elevated, flat : 

 whorls 5^-6, slowly increasing, rounded, ornamented with narrow oblique 

 ribs, about 16-20 in the tenth of an inch, the interstices indistinctly striated 

 with growth-lines ; suture impressed : umbilicus about one-fourth the dia- 

 meter of the shell, funnel-shaped, gradated, pervious : aperture subvertical, 

 rotundly lunar ; peristome thin, upper margin rapidly advancing and then 

 turning down with a slightly concave sinuation, then regularly arched ; 

 columellar margin not reflected. Greatest diameter - 19, least 0*16, height 

 0-07 inch. Dentition, 13-1-13. 



Hab. Dunedin. 



Having compared this species with specimens of the true P. coma from 

 Auckland I find that it is different, being more closely ribbed, but less 

 closely so than in P. buccinella and P. infecta. The right lip advances, as 

 in P. infecta, but it can be distinguished from that species by the interstices 

 between the ribs appearing almost smooth when viewed by transmitted 

 light, and an inch objective. 



Microphysa (?) pumila, sp. nov. 



Shell minute, subdiscoidal, umbilicated, thin, translucent, smooth, 

 scarcely shining, with distant plait-like ribs : colour horny-brown. Spire 

 slightly convex ; whorls 4, increasing rather rapidly, rounded, with regular, 

 distant, membranous ribs, about 20 to 25 in the tenth of an inch, the 

 insterstices finely reticulated ; suture impressed ; umbilicus rather large, 

 about one-fourth the diameter of the shell, gradated, pervious ; aperture 



