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Show '875.] OF THE MADEIRAN ACHATINcE. 679 of Lowe) fall off from it; for they certainly have not the characteristics of the genus. Does the Achatina folliculus, Gron., a common European species, belong to this new genus or not ? Surely, had it possessed the generic peculiarities mentioned above, the fact would long ago have been noticed. I have not been able as yet to decide the question, and have, indeed, to regret that so few of the distinctive Madeiran species have been examined by me. It was but very shortly before leaving the island that I noticed the caudal gland in A. tornatellina ; and for the other species here described, I have been indebted to the kindness of m y friend Mr. Moniz, who, after considerable difficulty and delay, procured from Porto Santo the other species here described. LOVEA (ACHATINA) MELAMPOIDES, Lowe. Colour. The general effect is light, of a faint ruddy brown tinge. The foot is gelatinous, translucent, white, with a faint tinge of brown; that of the body is a slightly darker tinge of brown which extends along above the edge of the foot to the gland at the tail. The head and neck are slightly browner than the body, and are scored with the long grey muscles of the tentacles. The mantle is of the same colour as the body. The mantle-lobe, in m y specimens, which had been long in confinement, was small and thin and transparent, but quite distinctly lapping out beyond the aperture and turned back upon the edge and prolonged posteriorly. Tentacles rather long, but not thin, seldom extended, terminating in small round bulbs, on the upper surface of which is an ocular lens shaped like a thumb-nail, in which the minute black eyes appear. The under tentacles are very short and not so dark as the upper ones; they are seldom fully exserted*. Both the body and the tentacles are finely tubercled. Foot narrow. Tail very long, extending nearly or quite to the apex; very slender and sharp-pointed on the sole, but broad and obliquely truncate above, with a gland distinctlyprojecting into a sharp angulation a little short of the end of the tail. Jaw horny, crescentic, about '05 inch (1\ mill.) long (taken straight, not along the curve), and *01 inch (or \ mill.) wide. It is scored across with about 60 slightly converging ridges. The radula consists of overhanging, long-pointed, 2-shouldered teeth fixed on a square base. The centre tooth is very small and extremely short, with a minute sharp overhanging point and very slight shoulders. The base to which it is attached is not square, but oblong like a narrow crescentic shoemaker's knife. On either side of this central tooth there are 50 lateral teeth ; but as they go off to either side they become rudimentary and appear at last as mere square ticks. The outer shoulder tends earliest to recede towards the root of the tooth and to become rudimentary. There were at least 100 rows ; but many of them had been lost. * I have noted that they seemed to have minute eyes; but I could not quite satisfy myself of this. |
