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Show 1887.] MOLLUSCA OF T H E VITI ISLANDS. 189 2. VERTIGO TANTILLA. Pupa (Vertigo) tantilla, Gould, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. p. 197 ; Pfeiffer, Mon. Hel. iii. p. 557; (Vertigo) Mousson, Journ. de Conch. 1870, p. 127 ; (Vertigo) Schmeltz, Cat. Mus. Godeff. iv. p. 69 ; (Pupinella) Paetel, Cat. Conch, lr/3, p. 108. Vertigo tantilla, Gould, Expl. Exp., Shells, p. 92, fig. 103; (Aiau) II. & A. Adams, Gen. Moll. ii. p. 172; Pease, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, pp. 460, 463, 474 ; Garrett, Journ. Phil. Acad. Nat. Sci. 1881, p. 400, 1885, p. 84. Pupa pteurophora, Shuttleworth, Bern. Mittheil. 1852, p. 296 ; Pfeiffer, Mon. Hel. iii. p. 560. Vertigo pleurophoru, Pease, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 474. Pupa dunkeri, " Zelebor," Pfeiffer, Mon. Hel. vi. p. 333. Vertigo dunkeri, Pease, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 474. Vertigo armata, Pease, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, pp. 461, 474. Pupa armata, Pfeiffer, Mon. Hel. viii. p. 407. Vertigo dentifera, Pease, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, pp. 462, 474. Pupa dentifera, Pfeiffer, Mon. Hel. viii. p. 408. Ranges from the Society to the Viti Islands. This and the preceding species are found beneath rotten wood, under stoues, and amongst decaying leaves. In shape it varies from an abbreviate-ovate to oblong-oval, and also in a greater or less degree in the relative proportion of the whorls. Colour pale corneous under a brownish, more or less distinctly shagreened epidermis, which in perfect examples is furnished with oblique membranous riblets. The last whorl, behind the peristome, is frequently bisulcate. March 1, 1887. Prof. W. H. Flower, LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. Prof. Jeffrey Bell read extracts from a communication sent him by Mr. Edgar Thurston, Superintendent of the Government Central Museum, Madras, with reference to a Batrachian of the geuus Cacopus. Of a specimen of C. globulosus, Mr. Thurston wrote: - " O n laying open the visceral cavity, the globular shape was found to be due to an enormous distention of tbe oesophagus and stomach, the latter occupying nearly the whole of the abdominal cavity, and the remaining viscera &c. being compressed and lying posteriorly. There was no distention of the intestinal tract. The distention of the oesophagus and stomach was found, on section, to be caused by the presence in their cavities of a mass of winged White Ants (Termites), which, when dried, weighed 326 grains." The colour of C. systoma during life was reported to be " primrose- yellow marbled with black, the yellow colouring-material rapidly dissolving in alcohol." PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1887, No. XIV. 14 |
