INTRODUCTION 



The following catalogue of Ohio Mollusca, an abstract of 

 my hand list, is published at the request of conchologists, and 

 of members of the Ohio Academy. As indicated by the title, it 

 is a preliminary one, imperfect, and not complete either as to 

 the species and forms occurring in the state or as to their distri- 

 bution. It is based partly on earlier lists, especially those of the 

 vicinity of Cincinnati, by Shaffer, Byrnes, "O. G. B." Harper 

 and Wetherby, and partly on recent collecting in several counties 

 by other conchologists, and my own collecting of over twenty 

 years, in various parts of the State. The only vicinities worked 

 up fairly well, and of which approximately complete lists have 

 been published, are those of Cincinnati, a classical collecting 

 ground for nearly a century, and New Philadelphia, Tuscarawas 

 County. Much careful collecting has been done also in the 

 vicinity of Columbus, since the forties of the last century, by 

 Moores, Higgins, Surface and others, but only a very incomplete 

 catalogue of the land mollusca has been published. The late 

 Geo. W. Dean and his friend, Geo. J. Streator (now in California), 

 have collected principally in Portage County, A. Pettingell 

 in Summit Co., John A. Allen in the vicinity of Cleveland and on 

 the lake islands, and E. L. Mosely at Sandusky. 



It is expected that more students of nature, in all parts of 

 the state, will direct their attention to, and collect our land and 

 fresh- water mollusca, recent as well as fossil, wherever such can 

 be found. Very much work is yet to be done, and these animals 

 are of great interest, especially with respect to zoogeography. 

 Then the time will come when it is possible to work up a more 

 complete and elaborate "fauna" of the state, with more data on 

 the distribution over the main drainages, and the various kinds 

 of soil and surface formation, with tables, charts, etc. Also 

 closer comparison with the faunas of neighboring states will 

 then be in place. Earlier work and earlier lists will be reviewed, 

 and literature cited. 



During recent years, mollusk lists have been published of 

 the States of New York, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wiscon- 

 sin, and local lists of Pennsylvania. None of them pretends to 

 be complete; yet, with Ohio added, they facilitate a fair con- 

 ception of the fauna of this part of the continent. 



Ohio, being in the Interior Region of the Eastern Sub- 

 province (W. G. Binney) of the Nearctic Province, has that 

 characteristic fauna, in a general way. Yet there are some 



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