G6 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Feb. 



I doubt, if the characters justify a generic separation from Cyclophorus, 

 they certainly shew that the shells belong to a very well marked and 

 peculiar group. All are from the hills on the borders of Travancore. 



The next two species appear to me to differ so much from all 

 known forms, that I see no other plan of classifying them, than to 

 found a new genus. They are small turbinate shells with a thick hairy 

 epidermis with strong crenulation inside the mouth. The operculum 

 is very similar to that of the Bornean and Siamese genus Opisthopo- 

 rus, the shell of which, however, is very different, and I am in- 

 clined to consider the similarity in the operculum accidental. The 

 peculiarity of the operculum consists in its being hollow, not solid, 

 formed of two thin disks united by a spiral lamina coiled at right 

 angles to their planes, the spaces between the whorls of the 

 lamina being hollow. From this character I propose to call the genus 

 Mychopoma. It approaches very closely to Cyathopoma, and per- 

 haps should rank as a subgenus, but the structure of the operculum 

 is different. This opercular structure, though, has not the importance, 

 amongst the Cyclpiiorid^e at all events, which some naturalists are 

 inclined to attribute to it. Of the two species discovered, one is from 

 the Pulney Hills, the other from the frontiers of Travancore. 



The next shell is a new Spiraculum, the first met with in Southern 

 India. Four or five species are known though some of them areundescrib- 

 ed, from the countries east of the Bay of Bengal, and a few years since 

 I described one discovered by Captain Beddome near Vizagapatam. 

 The present discovery, one of Rev. Fairbank's, shews the existence of 

 another genus with decided Malay affinities in the hill ranges of 

 Southern India. 



A few years ago when Sir Emerson Tennant wrote his very interest- 

 ing work on Ceylon, one of his principal arguments for the distinction 

 of the fauna from that of India was the absence in India of several genera, 

 then believed to be peculiar to Ceylon. Amongst these were Catau- 

 lus and Tanalia. Captain Beddome has now discovered no less than 

 3 species of Cataulus in the hills south of the Nilghiris. One has 

 been described by Dr. Pfeiffer from Captain Beddome's specimens, 

 two of which found their way in Mr. Cuming's rich collection, now 

 in the British Museum ; a second from the ranges on the frontier of 

 Travancore I now describe, and I have heard from Captain Beddome 



