306 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



and the outer lip of the shell. (Fig. 4.)* From the fact that 

 Guilding lived at St. Vincent, the creature is probably West 

 Indian ; but unfortunately no description of it has been pub- 

 lished, and its identity cannot be ascertained. The information 

 and figure were probably derived from Guilding's unpublished 

 papers, of which Swainson is known to have made use. The 

 figure, perhaps worked up from a rough sketch not intended for 

 publication, is probably inaccurate, and much enlarged ; it does 

 not appear to represent Megalomastoma antillarum, Sowerby, or 

 M. guilding ianum, Pfeiffer, to which names "Megalomastoma 

 suspensum" has been referred; and Mr. E. A. Smith (British 

 Museum), who has obligingly considered the figure for the 

 writer, thinks that it represents, possibly, Cistula lineolata, a 

 small West Indian shell, of which the Museum acquired un- 

 named specimens at the sale of Guilding's collection. If this be 

 the case, of course, our spinner belongs not to the present, but 

 to the following family. 



C YCLOSTOMATIDiE . 



In some notes forwarded to 'Loudon's Magazine' in 1831, 

 Guilding mentions a " Cyclostoma " common in the Virgin 

 Islands, which, having given out a mucous thread, closes the 

 operculum, and swings by the thread when hardened by the air, 

 safe from ants and other enemies.f This note was received in 

 the year preceding that of Guilding's death, and, as he does not 

 mention any other thread-making operculate, the writer presumes 

 that this " Cyclostoma " is identical with the " Megalomastoma 

 suspensum." In this case, in the circumstances just mentioned, 

 the creature is possibly a Cistula ; and we find it stated by Mr. 

 R. J. L. Guppy that Cistula aripensis % (Trinidad) frequently 

 suspends itself by two or three glutinous threads from branches, 

 or from the under surface of leaves. § Mr. Guppy, replying to an 

 enquiry, has had the kindness to inform the writer that this little 

 shell, J-f in. long, is the only mollusc known to him in Trinidad 



* Swainson, 'Treatise on Malacology,' 1840, p. 186. 



f Guilding, ' Loudon's Magazine of Natural History,' ix. (1836), p. 195. 



J Adamsiella aripensis. 



§ Guppy, ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History' (3), xvii. (1866), 

 p. 45; 'Proceedings of the Scientific Association of Trinidad,' i. (1866), 

 p. 31. 



