The Flesh-eating Land Snails 



to rid them of earthworms. The average person would mistake 

 it for a slug, and thus destroy an ally, instead of an enemy. 



Genus OLEACINA, Bolt. 

 Section Glandina 



Shell large, long, with narrow aperture and elevated spire, 

 able to contain the long, narrow body; mouth flanked by two 

 long lip feelers, besides the two pairs of tentacles ; radula as in 

 Testacella. A group of predatory mollusks whose distribution 

 centres in tropical America. 



The greatest of land snails, the Bulimus of South America, 

 six inches long, with eggs as big as olives, is the helpless victim of 

 a Glandina. Calculatingly the cannibal explores the aperture 

 to make certain the shrinking creature is within. Assured of this, 

 it makes short work of dragging it forth. Occasionally, as if to 

 keep its teeth sharp, the Glandina will bore a shell through as a 

 Natica would do, and suck the soft parts. 



O. truncata, Gmel., lives a semi-aquatic life among the 

 Everglades and on the Keys of Florida, ranging north to South 

 Carolina and to the islands off the coast of Georgia. It preys 

 upon land mollusks, chiefly Helices, which it bores with its "drill." 

 It does not disdain slugs, and often devours its own kind. The 

 shell is rosy yellow. 



The largest specimens are four inches long, but the species 

 averages one to two inches. The collector looks for them in the 

 centres of tussocks of marsh grass close to the sea coast. The 

 Cuban Oleacina excretes a bitter fluid with which it benumbs 

 its victim before devouring it. 



/Erope, the greatest of all carnivorous land-shells, lives in 

 South Africa. It is a dull, olive brown snail, about four inches 

 long. It is said that after a battle between native tribes great 

 numbers of /Erope caffra, Fer., come together from all directions, 

 the goal being the field of slaughter. 



Family SELENiriOyE 



Shell as in Helix. Animal carnivorous; jaw without ribs; 

 radula well developed, rows of teeth arched. 



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