42 "W. T. Blanford— On tie Identity of tie [No. I, 



Hanley assuring him that the name could not even he found in Benson's ma- 

 nuscripts. 



It is quite true that no such species as Carycliium scalare was ever 

 described, hut I cannot help feeling some surprise that none of the natural- 

 ists consulted should have noticed that a description of the shell was pub- 

 lished by Benson in 1864 as the type of a new genus under the name of 

 Coilostele (more correctly Coilostele) scalaris.* There cannot, I think, be 

 any hesitation in identifying the species ; the types were procured from the 

 banks of the Jumna and Betwa, and the new genus Coilostele is, though with 

 some little doubt, ascribed to the Auriculacea and compared with Cary- 

 cliium. The description agrees in all the external characters of the shell 

 with that given by Dr. Paladilhe ; in the latter, it is true, no mention is made 

 of the absorption of the axis in the apical whorls, from which character the 

 name Coelostele is derived, but this might be easily overlooked, and there 

 cannot, I think, be much doubt as to the identity of the two genera Ccelos- 

 tele and Francesia, the former name having priority by 8 years. 



There appears, however, to be a specific distinction between the Indian 

 and Arabian forms which has escaped the notice of Dr. Paladilhe. The 

 Indian C. scalaris is described by Mr. Benson as smooth (testa Icevi lyalina 

 nitida), whilst the Aden Francesia scalaris is said to be finely and very 

 regularly marked with very elegant rather flexuous costulations. I have 

 recently procured specimens of the Indian form from the neighbourhood 

 of Karachi in Sind, which agree with Mr. Benson's description and are 

 entirely destitute of costulation. 



As has already been mentioned, the genus Coelostele was referred by 

 Benson, though not with great certainty, to the AuricxClidce, his principal 

 reason being that he found the axis of the spire to be obsolete or absorbed 

 as in Auricula, Pythia, and several other genera of Auriculidce.f Paladilhe 

 looked upon his Francesia scalaris as probably a fresh water mollusk, and 

 he proposed to attach it provisionally to the family of the Lymnceidce \\ 

 His principal reason, as he states, for believing it to be of aquatic origin, 

 was that the numerous specimens examined by him had the whole shell and 

 especially the aperture free from clay or mud,, whereas he had noticed that 

 small terrestrial mollusca, such as Pupa, Vertigo, &c. when left on the banks 

 of torrents or rivers by floods (the position in which alone C. scalaris has 



* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. Ser. 3, XIII, p. 136. See also Zool. Record, 1864, 

 p. 235 under Auriculacea. 



t I find that the axis is equally wanting in the upper part of the spire in Sind spe- 

 cimens. 



% He subsequently explained that in his opinion it was allied to the singular little 

 genus Moitesseria, which is said to he aquatic, and on this account he had believed it 

 allied to the freshwater pulmobranchs (Issel. Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. IV, p. 525). 



