OCR Text |
Show 1866.] MR. w. T. BLANFORD ON OPISTHOSTOMA. 447 Fam. MUTELID^E. 6. SPATHA BAIKII, sp. nov. S. testa solidula, transversa, ovata, ventricosa, antice angusta, rotundata, postice lata, subrotundata; margine dorsali arcuato; margine ventrali in medio sinuato; epidermide nigrofusca; umbonibus antemedianis, inconspicuis, erosis; margarita sal-monaceo- purpurea. Long. 120, alt. 80, lat. 45 mill. Hab. River Niger. I have named this species after m y lamented friend Dr. Baikie, by whom it was collected. It differs from S. rubens, to which it approaches most nearly in form, in being more ventricose, broader and more rounded posteriorly, and in having a greater sinuation of the ventral margin. It is also a larger shell, and the epidermis is of a darker colour. Note on Opisthostoma de-Crespignii. Since describing the shell of this species, some examples having the animal dried within them have come into m y possession ; and by breaking one of them carefully and extracting the animal I have ascertained that it is provided with an exceedingly minute and very thin horny operculum. As, from its helix-like appearance and very elongated and porrected mouth, it is more singular even than the type of the genus, 0. nilgiricum, a figure of it is now given (PI. X X X V I I I . fig. 12), none having hitherto been published. M . de Crespigny has suggested that this genus may be identical with the fossil Scoliostoma, which, however, has hitherto been regarded as marine. Its resemblance to the type of Scoliostoma, S. ^ dannenburgi, is very strong; and if they are not generically the same, the very singular fact must certainly be admitted that a group of recent land-shells exists possessing this peculiar form in common with a group of extinct marine shells.-H. A D A M S . 11. O n Opisthostoma, H . Blanford, with the Description of a N e w Species from the Neighbourhood of Bombay, and of the Animal and Operculum. By W I L L I A M T. B L A N F O R D , Assoc. Roy. Sch. Min., F.G.S. (Plate XXXVIII.) To the keen search of one of the most indefatigable and successful collectors of land shells in India, the Rev. S. Fairbank, is due the very interesting discovery of a second species of the remarkable Cyclostomaceous genus Opisthostoma, the type of which was first found by m y brother, Mr. H. F. Blanford, on the Nilgiri hills of |