104 



Proceedinc/s of the Royal Irish Academf/. 



islands ; and it is also met with in other 

 parts of the country. 



I^othing, however, has ever heen 

 found which could be looked on even 

 as a sub-species of this mollusk, with 

 the possible exception of some shells 

 taken by the late Dr. Chaster and 

 Jlr. J. E. Hardy on the shore of the 

 Kenmare Kiver, and mentioned by 

 Mr. Standen in his report of the Field 

 Club Conference (Irish I^at., September, 

 1898). Prom the habitat in which these 

 specimens were living — under stones 

 and seaweed below high-water mark- 

 one could scarcely, however, expect 

 them to have been normal. In one of the 

 little glens of the north coast of Antrim 

 a colony of this species occurs, in which 

 a fair number of the beautiful white 

 form may sometimes be found, associated 

 with the white form of Pupa cylindracea 

 and white-lipped £«?/a; ?j«>«o;-aZw. Speci- 

 mens from Dunluce old church in 

 Antrim have been referred by "Wester- 

 lund to a new variety, var. variostriata 

 West. (Irish Nat., is, 131, 1900). 



SUCCINEIDAE. 



Succinea putris (Linne). 



Plate YII, figs. 43, 44. 



Helix succinea, Brown, Mem. Werner. 

 Soc, vol. ii, p. 530, 1818. 



A common shell in the central, 

 southern, and eastern counties, and 

 especially along the marshy banks of 

 the larger rivers, such as the Shannon, 

 Boyne, and Barrow. It becomes rare 

 towards the west and north, and is 

 quite absent from several districts, 

 among which west Kerry, north-west 

 Mayo, and north-west Donegal are the 

 most important. A small obese form 



of Succinea pfeifferi (fig. 41) has often 

 erroneously been recorded by visiting 



^VD ED LD AN 

 FE TY AR DO 

 WIVfSL LE fVIO 



EM RO CV LH 

 ^ G NG LF WH ME 

 SC KG KD DU 

 CL NT QC CW Wl 

 NK LK ST KK WX 

 SK MC EC WA 

 WC 



conchologists and English authorities 

 as S. putris ; but the opinion of some 

 malacologists confirms that of the 

 Irish workers, wlio regard this foi-m 

 of the next species as bearing no rela- 

 tionship to S. putris. Indeed, the 

 Rev. E. W. Bowell, to whom I sent 

 specimens from Donegal in 1908, replied 

 that the radula and genitalia were not 

 identical with any species known to 

 him, and at any rate could not possibly 

 be mistaken for those of S. putris. The 

 habitat of these small form.s of S. 

 pfeifferi will, I think, at once separate 

 them from the present species. They 

 are invariably found on the ground or 

 under stones around the edges of lakes 

 or on the muddy sides of streams and 

 drains, wliile S. putris, except during 

 the winter months, which it often 

 spends far away from its summer 

 feeding-habitat, lives on the tall 

 vegetation which fiinges swamps, 

 canals, and slow-ninning streams. ^ 



Succinea putris (fig. 44) varies con- 

 siderably in size, colour — from dark 

 mahogany to pale amber — and tex- 

 ture ; but the most striking variation 

 I have seen from this counti'v is in 



