GASTEROPODA. 
285 
manner as L.filans. Having placed one on a laurel, I was surprised by 
seeing it forthwith make use of this means for conveying itself in safety 
to the ground. I have since succeeded in making other individuals act 
in a similar way. The spinning limaces may be easily forced to do so by 
leaving them on an evergreen or other tree which may not be congenial 
to their tastes, when they will speedily effect their escape in this manner. 
L. gagates, Drap. 
Tuam ; Dublin (1840) ; Clifden (1840) ; La Bergerie, Queen’s County j 
Tuam Palace Gardens, Co. Galway; Tourkmacady Lodge, near Ballin- 
robe, Co. Mayo ; Rev. B. J. Clarke ( loc. cit .). 
Genus Testacelltjs. 
T. haliotideus , Fer. 
This species was discovered many years ago by Dr. R. Ball, in the 
Town Gardens, at Youghal, where it has become much scarcer of late. 
The Irish specimens agree with English examples of the var. V. scutulum, 
with which I have been favoured by Mr. G. B. Sowerby. Mr. Gray 
(Man. p. 123, 124) seems to consider this a naturalized species, but the 
circumstance of its being found at Youghal speaks more strongly in favour 
of the T. haliotideus being a true native than that of its being met with in 
some of the gardens around London, to which it might much more readily 
have been introduced along with exotic plants. In a garden at Bandon, 
too, a Testacellus has been procured by Dr. G. J. Allman. The circum- 
stance of this species, indigenous to France and to the island of Guernsey, 
being found only in the south of England and Ireland seems to me 
strongly in favour of its being equally indigenous to these countries. Dr. 
Ball, in reply to some questions, observes, “ I first became aware of this 
Testacellus preying on worms by putting some of them in spirits, when 
they disgorged more of these animals than I thought they could possibly 
have contained ; each worm was cut (but not divided) at regular intervals. 
I afterwards caught them in the act of swallowing worms four and five 
times their own length. Some of these Testacelli, which I brought to 
Dublin and put in my fern-house, produced young there.” 
Testacellus found in flower-gardens and neighbouring grounds, about 
Youghal ; about Bandon also. March, 1847. — I received three living 
specimens from the vicinity of Cork, from J. D. Humphreys. 
Family 2, Helicidje. 
Genus Vitrina. 
V. pellucida, Drap., 
Is in suitable localities distributed over Ireland, and may be found 
under the first stones we meet with in going inland from the sea-shore, 
up to as great an altitude in the mountain-glens as there are moss and 
leaves to shelter it. I have remarked the colour both of animal and 
shell to vary, and the latter to present some differences in form. See 
J effreys on V. Mulleri and V Draparnaldi, in Linnsean Transactions, vol. 
xvi. When thin, and of an almost crystalline transparency, the shell is 
often more handsomely formed than when thicker and of a greenish 
colour, and is intermediate between the V. pellucida and V. diaphana, as 
represented by Draparnaud (pi. 8) and Rossmassler (t. i.) ; this state is 
equally common with the normal V. pellucida, of which the animal is 
lighter in colour, and not so large compared with the shell as in the 
variety. 
