CHAPTER X

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF LAND AND FRESH-WATER MOLLUSCA--THE PALAEARCTIC, ORIENTAL, AND AUSTRALASIAN REGIONS

The Mollusca afford specially valuable evidence on problems of geographical distribution. This fact is largely due to their extreme susceptibility to any change in the conditions of life. Genera which are accustomed to live in a certain temperature and on certain food, cannot sustain life if the temperature falls or rises beyond certain limits, or if the required food be not forthcoming. There is therefore a marked contrast between the Mollusca of the tropics and of the temperate zones, while different regions in the same latitude, whether within or without the tropics, often show great diversity in their fauna. Every region is thus _characterised_ by its Mollusca. The Mollusca, for instance, of Australia or of South Africa characterise those countries quite as much as do the kangaroo and the emu, the hartebeest and the ostrich; there is nothing like them anywhere else in the world. In the Greater Antilles the Mollusca stand out beyond all other forms of life as characteristic of the islands as a whole, and of each separate island in particular.

The geographical distribution of the land and fresh-water Mollusca must be considered quite apart from that of the marine Mollusca. The sea offers no such serious barriers to the spread of the latter as the land does to the spread of the former. If we were to journey to the Azores, and turn our attention to the land-snails, we should find them almost wholly peculiar, while amongst the sea-shells we should recognise many as occurring also on our southern coasts, and few that were different from those of the Mediterranean. The marine Mollusca of the Sandwich Islands, in spite of the enormous intervening distance, are not very different from those of Natal, but the land Mollusca of the two countries are as widely different as is possible to imagine.

Land Mollusca are, as has been remarked, fettered to the soil. Quadrupeds, birds, fishes, and reptiles are provided with organs of motion which enable them to overpass barriers of various kinds. Even plants, although themselves incapable of motion, may be conveyed in every direction by means of seeds, which are either wafted by the wind or adhere to the skin of animals. But the Mollusca have no such regular means of transport, and are, in a large number of instances, limited to districts of a certain character of soil, or producing certain kinds of vegetation.

The localisation, both of genera and species, occurs all over the world. The genus _Achatinella_, which is peculiar to the Sandwich Islands, is found there in a profusion of species. It lives in the mountain valleys which radiate from the central ridge of each island, and each valley is characterised by its own peculiar set of species. The great carnivorous _Glandina_ is restricted to Central America and the adjacent parts of the two continents, with one or two species in Southern Europe. _Bulimus_ proper is restricted to South America; _Achatina_ to Africa south of the Sahara; _Tornatellina_ to the Pacific Islands; _Cochlostyla_ to the Philippines; _Cylindrella_ and _Bulimulus_ are peculiar to the New World; _Buliminus_, _Nanina_, _Scarabus_, and _Cassidula_ to the Old.

Extreme cases of this restriction of habitat sometimes occur. Thus _Limnaea involuta_ is found only in a single small mountain tarn in Ireland; _Clausilia scalaris_ along a narrow strip of limestone in Malta; _Strophia nana_ is confined to a few square rods on an island that is itself a mere dot in the Caribbean Sea; the genus _Camptonyx_ occurs only in the neighbourhood of Mt. Girnar, in Gujerat; and _Lantzia_ in moss on the top of a mountain in Bourbon.

Attempts to colonise snails in strange localities have usually resulted in failure, especially when the attempt has involved serious changes of environment. The common _Cochlicella acuta_ of our coasts resists all endeavours to establish it beyond a certain distance from the sea. Snails brought from the Riviera and placed under almost similar conditions of climate on our own southern coasts have lived for a while, but have very rarely taken permanent root. Mr. H. W. Kew[354] has collected a good many of these attempts to acclimatise species, the general success of which seems to depend almost entirely on a restoration of the old conditions of life.

At the same time there are certain species which exhibit a curiously opposite tendency, and which seem capable of flourishing in almost any part of the world, and under the most varied surroundings. Our own common garden snail (_Helix aspersa_) is a striking instance of this adaptability to new conditions. It has been established, by art or by accident, in Nova Scotia, Maine, South Carolina, New Orleans, California, Mexico city, Cuba, Hayti, Cayenne, Brazil, Valparaiso, Cape Town, the Azores, St. Helena, Mauritius, Loyalty Islands, and Australia. The great _Achatina fulica_ of East Africa has been established first in Mauritius, and from thence has been carried to the Seychelles and Calcutta. _Helix lactea_, a common Mediterranean species, has been carried to Teneriffe and Montevideo; _Helix similaris_, whose fatherland is Eastern Asia, has been transported to Mauritius, Bourbon, West Africa, West Indies, Brazil, and Australia; _Ennea bicolor_ (Eastern Asia) to India, Bourbon, Mauritius, West Indies; _Stenogyra decollata_ (Mediterranean basin) to South Carolina; _S. Goodallii_ (West Indies) to British pineries; _Helix Hortensis_ to New Jersey. Seven common English species (_Limax gagates_, _Hyalinia cellaria_, _H. alliaria_, _Helix aspersa_, _H. pulchella_, _Pupa umbilicata_) have become naturalised in St. Helena,[355] and as many as nineteen in Australia.[356]

Cases of artificial transport of this kind are readily detected; they follow the lines of trade. The snails themselves or their ova have been accidentally enclosed with plants or mould, or have adhered to packing-cases, or to hay and grass used in packing. Thus they constitute no disturbance to the general rule of the persistent localisation of species and genera, and there is little fear that the evidence which the geographical distribution of the Mollusca brings to bear upon the general problems of distribution will be confused by any intermixture of fauna naturally distinct.

_Land Mollusca: Barriers to Dispersal._--The chief natural barriers to dispersal are extremes of temperature, the sea, mountain ranges, and deserts. Rivers, however large, seem of little effect in checking dispersal. There is no appreciable difference between the land Mollusca north and south of the Ganges, or north and south of the Amazon. Living snails, or their ova, are no doubt transported from one bank to another on floating débris of various kinds. The barrier offered by the sea is obvious, and at first sight appears insurmountable; but the facts with regard to oceanic groups of islands like the Azores and Canaries (see p. 297) show that even a stretch of salt water many hundred miles in breadth may be ineffectual in preventing the dispersal of Mollusca.

Mountain ranges, provided they are too high to be scaled, and too long to be turned in flank, offer a far more effective barrier than the sea. Every thousand feet upward means a fall of so many degrees in the mean temperature, and a change, more or less marked, in the character of the vegetation. There is generally, too, a considerable difference in the nature of the climate on the two sides of a great mountain range, one side being often arid and cold, the other rainy and warm. The combined effect of these influences is, as a rule, decisive against the dispersal of Mollusca. Thus the Helices of California are almost entirely peculiar; one or two intruders from states farther east have succeeded in threading their way through the deep valleys into the Pacific provinces, but not a single genuine Californian species has been able to scale the heights of the Cascade Mountains. The land Mollusca of India are numbered by hundreds; not one penetrates north of the Himalayas. According to Mr. Nevill,[357] the change from the Indo-Malayan to the so-called European molluscan fauna at the northern watershed of the Kashmir valley is most abrupt and distinct; in two days’ march northward, every species is different. Ranges of inferior altitude, such as the Pyrenees, the Carpathians, or the Alleghanies, may be turned in flank as well as scaled, and we find no such marked contrast between the Mollusca on their opposite sides.

The most effective barrier of all, however, is a desert. Its scorching heat, combined with the absence of water and of vegetable life, check dispersal as nothing else can. The distribution of the Mollusca of the Palaearctic Region is an excellent instance of this. Their southern limit is the great desert which stretches, with scarcely a break, from the west coast of Africa to the extreme east coast of Asia. The Mediterranean offers no effectual barrier; shells of southern Europe are found in profusion in Morocco, Tunis, and Egypt, while all through Siberia to the extreme of Kamschatka the same types, and even the same species, of Mollusca occur.

A detailed examination of the means, other than voluntary, by which Mollusca are transported from one place to another hardly comes within the scope of this work. Ocean currents, rivers, floods, cyclonic storms of wind, birds, and even beetles and frogs, play a part, more or less considerable, in carrying living Mollusca or their ova, either separately or in connexion with floating débris of every kind, to a distance from their native home. Accidental locomotion, of one or other of these kinds, combined with the well-known tenacity of life in many species (p. 37), may have contributed to enlarge the area of distribution in many cases, especially in the tropics, where the forces of nature are more vigorous than in our latitudes. The ease with which species are accidentally spread by man increases the probability of such cases occurring without the intervention of human agency, and numbers of instances may be collected of their actual occurrence.[358]

A point, however, which more concerns us here is to remark on the exceedingly wide distribution of the prevailing forms of fresh-water Mollusca. It might have been expected that the area of distribution in the fresh-water forms would be greatly restricted, since they cannot migrate across the land from one piece of water to another, and since the barriers between pond and pond, lake and lake, and one river system and another are, as far as they are concerned, all but insuperable. We might have expected, therefore, as Darwin and Wallace have remarked, to find a great multiplicity of species confined to very restricted areas, since the possibility of communication with the parent stock appears, in any given case, to be so exceedingly remote.

As is well known, the exact reverse occurs. The range, not merely of genera, but even of individual species, is astonishingly wide. This is especially the case with regard to the Pulmonata and Pelecypoda. The genera _Limnaea_, _Planorbis_, _Physa_, _Ancylus_, _Unio_, and _Cyclas_ are world-wide. Out of about ten genera of fresh-water Mollusca in New Zealand, one of the most isolated districts known, only one is peculiar. In South Africa and the Antilles no genus is peculiar. In the latter case, this fact is remarkable, when we consider that the same sub-region has at least ten peculiar genera of operculate land Mollusca alone.

To give a few instances of the distribution of particular species:--

_Limnaea stagnalis_ L. occurs in the whole of Europe, and northern Asia to Amoorland, Turkestan, Afghanistan, North Persia, and Kashmir; Greenland, North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from North Canada and British Columbia as far south as Texas. The distribution of _L. peregra_ Müll., _L. truncatula_ Müll., and _L. palustris_ Müll, is almost equally wide.

_Planorbis albus_ occurs in the whole of Europe, and northern Asia to Amoorland, Kamschatka, and Japan; Turkestan, the Altai-Baikal district, Alaska and Greenland, North Canada, and the whole of eastern North America.

The distribution of _Anodonta anatina_ L., _Cyclas cornea_ L., and _Pisidium pusillum_ Gmel. is almost equally wide.

It is evident that the accidental means of transport mentioned above are insufficient to account for the facts as we find them; we are therefore compelled to seek for further explanation. Anything in the nature of a current furnishes a ready means of transport for Mollusca which have obtained a footing in the upper waters of a river, and there is no difficulty in imagining the gradual spread of species, through the agency of floods or otherwise, over a whole river system, when once established at any point upon it. The feeble clinging power of newly-hatched _Limnaea_ has often been noticed as contributing to the chances of their range of distribution becoming extended. Fresh-water Mollusca, too, or their ova, are exceedingly likely, from their extreme abundance, to be transported by water-birds, which fly without alighting from one piece of water to another. Again, the isolation of one river system from another is, in many instances, by no means well marked or permanent, and a very slight alteration of level will frequently have the effect of diverting the supplies of one watershed into another. When we know what enormous oscillations in level have taken place over practically the whole surface of the globe, we can recognise the probability that the whole river system of the earth has been mixed up and reconstructed again and again, with a very thorough blending of adjacent fauna.

It is possible that the very uniform conditions under which fresh-water Mollusca live may have something to do with the uniformity of their distribution and the comparative sameness in their development. There can scarcely be any question that the environments of fresh-water species are in themselves less varied and less liable to fluctuation than those of species whose home is the land. Water is very like water, all the world over; it may be running or motionless, warm or cold, clear or muddy, but the general tendency is for it to be free from extremes of any kind. Even if the surface water of a lake or river freezes, or becomes unusually hot, there is generally plenty of water at a lower stratum which maintains a less extreme temperature, and to which creatures can retire on the first symptoms of a change. From this two results will follow. Not only will the inhabitants of a piece of water not be inclined to vary much from the type, since their whole surroundings, food, etc., continue very much the same, but, if transported by any accident or cataclysm elsewhere, they will be exceedingly likely to arrive at a place which closely resembles their former home in all essentials. Thus the tendency for new types to be formed would be constantly checked, or rather would very seldom arise.

Mr. Belt, while recognising the importance of changes of level as affecting the distribution of fresh-water species, appears to regard the operations of such changes from a rather different point of view to that described above. “I think it probable,” he writes,[359] “that the variation of fresh-water species of animals and plants has been constantly checked by the want of continuity of lakes and rivers in time and space. In the great oscillation of the surface of the earth, of which geologists find so many proofs, every fresh-water area has again and again been destroyed.... Thus species of restricted range were always exposed to destruction, because their habitat was temporary and their retreat impossible, and only families of wide distribution could be preserved.”

* * * * *

The terrestrial surface of the globe has been divided, as indicating the facts of geographical distribution, into six regions--the Palaearctic, Oriental, Australasian, Ethiopian, Nearctic, and Neotropical. To these is sometimes added a seventh, the Neantarctic, consisting of Chili and Patagonia (and certain islands of the south Atlantic); but since the Mollusca of Chili unmistakably form a part of the Neotropical fauna, it seems hardly worth while to recognise a separate region for those of the extreme south of South America, which have no peculiar characteristics.

In certain points the exact limits of these regions, as indicated by the Mollusca, will probably not correspond to those which are marked out by other zoological classes. Wallace’s line, for instance, does not exist, as far as the Mollusca are concerned.

These regions may be further subdivided into sub-regions, thus:--

Regions Sub-regions

{ Septentrional =Palaearctic= { Mediterranean { Central Asiatic

=Oriental= { Indo-Malay { Chinese

{ Papuan =Australasian= { Australian { Polynesian

{ Central African =Ethiopian= { South African { Malagasy

{ American =Nearctic= { Californian

{ Antillean { Central American =Neotropical= { Colombian { Brazilian { Chilian

=A. The Palaearctic Region=

The southern boundary of this region is the northern limit of the African Sahara, the Mediterranean forming no break whatever in its continuity. In Asia this boundary is less well marked, but roughly corresponds to the southernmost of the vast ranges of mountains which border the great tablelands of central Asia. Across Africa the line of desert is well defined; but in the north-east, as the desert approaches more nearly to the sea, the African extent of the region is correspondingly narrowed until it becomes little more than a strip of coast land, scarcely widening even in Lower Egypt. On the Morocco coast, Palaearctic land forms penetrate as far south as Cape Nun.[360] At its eastern extremity the line becomes less well defined, but probably proceeds along the snowy mountains west of Setchouan, the Pe-ling and Tan-sia-shan ranges, so as to include all the high ground of Thibet and of the upper waters of the Hoang-ho, and ultimately reaches its eastern limit at some point on the shores of the Sea of Japan.

The region thus includes all Europe, Africa north of the Sahara, with the Atlantic islands (the Azores, Canaries, etc.), North Arabia, Asiatic Turkey, the greater part of Persia, Afghanistan, Thibet, all Asiatic Russia, and a very large portion of the Chinese empire.

The principal characteristics of the region as a whole are:--

(1) The rich development of _Helix_, _Arion_, _Limax_, _Buliminus_, and _Clausilia_.

(2) The comparative absence of land operculates (see map, _frontispiece_).

(3) The uniform character of the fresh-water fauna.

It is in the southern portion of the region that _Helix_ (in the sub-genera _Macularia_, _Iberus_, _Pomatia_, and _Xerophila_) and _Buliminus_ (_Zebrina_, _Chondrula_, _Ena_) attain their maximum. In the north, _Fruticicola_ is the characteristic group; in the mountainous districts of the south-east, _Campylaea_, with _Clausilia_. The Arionidae have their headquarters in the damp and warm regions of western Europe, but are rare in the south. They only approach the Mediterranean coast in Algeria, near Gibraltar, and in the region between the base of the Pyrenees and the Maritime Alps, and are very poor in species throughout Italy and Sardinia. They are absent from almost the whole of northern Africa, the Mediterranean islands (except Sardinia), the whole Balkan district, the Crimea, Caucasus, and western Asia.[361]

The uniformity of the fresh-water fauna is disturbed only in the extreme south. A few species of _Melanopsis_, with _Neritina_, occur in southern Spain and Austria, Galicia, and southern Russia, while a _Melania_ or two (absent from Spain) penetrate the south-eastern parts of Europe as far as Germany. _Cyrena_ begins to replace _Cyclas_ in southern Russia and the Caucasus.

The Palaearctic region falls into three sub-regions:--

(1) The =Northern or Septentrional Sub-region=, _i.e._ the district north of the line formed by the Pyrenees,[362] Alps, Carpathians, and which, passing to the northward of the Aralo-Caspian district, follows the great central mountain range of Asia until it reaches the Sea of Japan, perhaps somewhere in the neighbourhood of Vladivostok.

(2) The =Mediterranean Sub-region=, _i.e._ the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, the Black and Caspian Seas, with the Atlantic Islands.

(3) The =Central Asiatic Sub-region=, _i.e._ Turkestan, Afghanistan, Thibet, and probably the districts of Mongolia and Manchuria.[363]

(1) The =Septentrional Sub-region= has been divided by some writers into two provinces, the European and the Siberian. There seems, on the whole, but little occasion to separate off northern Asia, the characteristic of which is, as will be seen below, rather the gradual disappearance, as we proceed eastward, of European species and genera, than the development of any new and peculiar groups. The remarkable fauna of Lake Baikal stands apart, not only from European, but also from the Siberian types occurring in its immediate neighbourhood.

On the whole, the Septentrional Sub-region is poor in species except those which inhabit fresh water. This fact is probably due to the extreme vicissitudes of temperature which prevail, and it is interesting to notice that the number of land Mollusca appears to touch its lowest point in districts where the annual range of temperature is greatest. On the other hand, in the western portions of the region, where the climate is moist and temperature more equable, the Mollusca are considerably more abundant and varied.

The line which separates the Septentrional from the Mediterranean Sub-region must of necessity be very roughly drawn, and stragglers from the south will be found to make their way northward, and _vice versâ_, under favouring circumstances of temperature and geological formation. Jordan has noticed[364] that species which in southern countries are not confined to any particular quality of soil are in more northern latitudes found only on limestone, which absorbs more heat than other formations. Conversely, the higher elevations of the Alps, Pyrenees, and even Carpathians are like islands in a sea, and support a thoroughly northern fauna, quite strange to that of the plains below. Thus _Helix harpa_ Say, a completely boreal shell, which is at home in Canada, Sweden, Lapland, and the Amoor district, is found on the Riffel Alp, at a height of 6000 feet.[365] _Vertigo arctica_ Wall., a species abundant in Lapland, North Siberia, Iceland, and Greenland, occurs on the high Alps of the Tyrol.

_Circumpolar Species._--A certain number of species are common to the extreme north both of the Palaearctic and Nearctic regions, and are, in fact, circumpolar. The number of these species, however, is so small, not exceeding about 40 species (= 16 genera), that it seems hardly worth while creating a special sub-region for their reception,

## particularly as no genus is peculiar. At the same time the fact is

instructive as illustrating the close connexion of the northern districts of the two regions, a connexion which was no doubt more intimate in recent geological times than it is now.

The circumpolar genera are as follows. The list decisively sets forth the superior hardiness of the fresh-water as compared with the land genera:--

Valvata 1 sp. Bithynia 1 „ Vitrina 1 „ Hyalinia 4 „ Helix 2 „ Patula 2 „ Pupa 3 „ Cionella 1 „ Succinea 1 „ Limnaea 7 „ Planorbis 5 „ Aplecta 1 „ Physa 1 „ Anodonta 1 „ Unio 1 „ Pisidium 1 „

_Great Britain._--There are in all about 130 species--83 land, 46 fresh-water; _Limnaea involuta_ (mountain tarn near Killarney) appears to be the only peculiar species. There are 11 _Hyalinia_, 5 _Arion_, and 25 _Helix_, the latter belonging principally to the sub-genera _Xerophila_, _Tachea_, _Trichia_, and _Fruticicola_. Three _Testacella_ are probably not indigenous, but are now so well established as to reckon in the total. Of the four _Clausilia_ two reach Ireland and one Scotland; two do not occur north of the Forth. There are only two land operculates, one of which (_Cyclostoma elegans_) occurs in Ireland but not in Scotland, while the other (_Acicula lineata_) reaches the southern counties of Scotland. Several species, _e.g._ _Helix pomatia_, _H. obvoluta_, _H. revelata_, _H. cartusiana_, _H. pisana_, _Buliminus montanus_, are restricted to the more southern or western counties; _Geomalacus maculosus_ is confined to a district in south-western Ireland.

The Pleistocene beds of East Anglia contain a number of species now extinct in these islands, whose occurrence appears to indicate a warmer climate than the present. Such are _Helix ruderata_, _H. fruticum_, _H. incarnata_, _Clausilia pumila_, _Unio littoralis_, _Hydrobia marginata_, and _Corbicula fluminalis_.

_Scandinavian Peninsula._--From Norway 121 species in all are recorded, and 148 from Sweden. The milder climate of Norway allows many species to reach a considerably higher latitude than in Sweden, thus in Sweden _Limax maximus_ only reaches 62°, but in Norway 66° 50´. Similarly _Arion hortensis_ and _Balea perversa_ only reach 63° and 61° respectively in Sweden, but in Norway are found as far north as 69° and 67° 50´. _Clausilia_ is represented by 9 species in southern Norway; one of these is found north of the Arctic circle. There are 4 _Pupa_, 9 _Vertigo_, and 11 _Hyalinia_, but _Helix_ dwindles to 14, 9 of which occur north of the Arctic circle. No land operculates are found; _Cyclostoma elegans_, however, occurs in Jutland and Zealand, which practically form a part of this district.

_Iceland._--Eleven species, all Scandinavian, occur. These are _Arion_ 2, _Limax_ 1, _Helix_ 2 (_arbustorum_ L. and _hortensis_ Müll., the latter being found only on the warmer southern coast), _Limnaea_ 1, _Planorbis_ 1, _Pisidium_ 4.

_France._--The northern, central, and eastern districts belong to this sub-region, while the southern and western, in which an entirely new element occurs and many northern forms disappear, belong to the Mediterranean. Thus, for instance, _Helix pomatia_ L., _H. incarnata_ Müll., _H. fruticum_ Müll., _H. cantiana_ Mont., _H. strigella_ Drap., _H. rufescens_ Penn., _H. plebeia_ Drap., are not found in southern France. No detailed enumeration of species is at present possible, the efforts of a large number of the leading French authorities being directed to indiscriminate species-making rather than to the careful comparison of allied forms. Perhaps the principal difference between the Mollusca of northern France and those of our own islands is the occurrence of two species of _Pomatias_. In the more elevated districts of eastern France (the Vosges, Jura, western Alps), a certain number of species occur which are confined to the high grounds of south central Europe. Among these are _Helix holoserica_ Stud., _H. personata_ Lam., _H. bidens_ Chem., _H. depilata_ Drap., _H. cobresiana_ Alt., _H. alpina_ Faure.

The Pleistocene deposits of the valley of the Somme tell the same tale as those of eastern England, containing as they do species and even genera whose northern range is now much more limited. The Eocene fossils from the Paris beds show most remarkable relationships to genera now existing in the West Indies and Central America. Others again indicate affinities with India. Thus we find _Ceres_, _Megalomastoma_, and _Tudora_ by the side of _Leptopoma_, _Faunus_, and _Paludomus_.

_Germany._--The Mollusca of the plains of northern Germany are few and not striking, and exhibit little difference from those of our own islands. In the mountainous districts of the south and south-east, a number of new forms occur, amongst which are 3 species of _Daudebardia_, a remarkable carnivorous form, with the general appearance of a _Vitrina_; 24 of _Clausilia_, many _Pupa_, several _Buliminus_, 3 of the _Campylaea_ group of _Helix_, stragglers from the Italo-Dalmatian fauna, and 1 of _Zonites_ proper. Our familiar _Helix aspersa_ is entirely absent from Germany. There are only 4 land operculates--_Pomatias_ 2, _Acicula_ 1, _Cyclostoma_ 1, all of which occur exclusively in the south. _Bithynella_ and _Vitrella_, two minute forms of fresh-water operculates akin to _Hydrobia_, occur throughout the district.

[Illustration: FIG. 193.--=A=, _Daudebardia brevipes_ Fér.: _sh_, shell; _p.o_, pulmonary orifice. (After Pfeiffer.) =B=, shell of _D. rufa_ Pfr., S. Germany.]

_Northern Russia and Siberia._--This vast tract extends from eastern Germany to the Amoor district. It is exceedingly poor in Mollusca, and is chiefly characterised by the gradual disappearance, as we proceed eastward, of European species. There are a few characteristic Siberian Mollusca, closely allied to European forms, and in the extreme east a new element is introduced in the appearance of types which indicate Chinese affinities. The whole district may be regarded as bounded to the south by a line drawn from Lemberg to Moscow, and thence to Perm; passing south of the Ural mountains, it includes the whole basins of the rivers Obi, Yenesei, and Lena, coinciding with the vast mountain ranges which terminate to the north the table-land of central Asia, at the eastern extremity of which it dips sharply southwards, so as to include the Amoor basin and Corea.

All the larger Helices are wanting, and no land operculates occur. _Helix arbustorum_ L., _H. nemoralis_ Müll., _H. lapicida_ L., _H. aculeata_ Müll., and _Hyalinia nitidula_ Drap., do not appear to occur east of the Baltic; _Arion fuscus_ Müll., _Helix strigella_ Drap., _Buliminus obscurus_ Müll., _Clausilia laminata_ Mont., _C. bidentata_ Bttg., _C. plicatula_ Drap., _Viviparus fasciatus_ Müll., and _Neritina fluviatilis_ L., do not pass the Urals.

In the Obi district (West Siberia) a further batch of European species find their easterly limit. Among these are _Helix hispida_ L., _Bithynia tentaculata_ L., _Vivipara vivipara_ L., _Pisidium amnicum_ Müll., and _Unio tumidus_ Retz. A few distinctly Siberian species now appear, _e.g._ _Ancylus sibiricus_ Gerst., _Valvata sibirica_ Midd., and _Vitrina rugulosa_ Koch.

The following are among the European species which reach eastern Siberia: _Hyalinia nitida_ Müll., _Succinea oblonga_ Drap., _Planorbis vortex_ L., _spirorbis_ L., _marginatus_ Drap., _rotundatus_ Poir., _fontanus_ Light., _Valvata piscinalis_ Müll., _Bithynia ventricosa_ Leach, and _Anodonta variabilis_ Drap. Here first occur such characteristic species as _Physa sibirica_ West., _P. aenigma_ West., _Helix pauper_ Gld., _H. Stuxbergi_ West., _H. Nordenskiöldi_ West., _Planorbis borealis_ Lov., _Valvata aliena_ West., _Cyclas nitida_ Cless., and _C. levinodis_ West. In the Amoor district a decided Chinese element makes its appearance in a few hardy forms which have penetrated northward, _e.g._ _Philomycus bilineatus_ Bens., and a few each of the _Fruticicola_ (Chinese) and _Acusta_ groups of _Helix_. Out of 53 species, however, enumerated from this district, as many as 33, belonging to 18 genera, occur also in Great Britain.

_Lake Baikal._--The Mollusca of Lake Baikal exhibit distinct characteristics of their own, which seem to indicate the long-continued existence of the lake in its present condition. Several entirely peculiar genera occur, which are specialised forms of _Hydrobia_, _e.g._ _Baikalia_, _Liobaikalia_, _Gerstfeldtia_, _Dybowskia_, and _Maackia_; _Benedictia_ alone extends to the basin of the Amoor. _Choanomphalus_, another peculiar and ultra-dextral (p. 250) genus belonging to the Limnaeidae, appears to be related to the West American _Carinifex_.

(2) The =Mediterranean Sub-region= is divided into four provinces: (_a_) The Mediterranean province proper; (_b_) the Pontic; (_c_) the Caucasian; and (_d_) the Atlantidean province.

(_a_) The _Mediterranean province proper_ is best considered by further subdividing it, with Fischer and others, into separate districts, each of which has certain peculiar characteristics.

(i) The _Hispano-Algerian_ district includes the greater part of the Iberian peninsula, the Balearic Islands, and northern Africa from Morocco to Tunis. The extreme western parts of these districts, including West Morocco, Portugal, Asturias, and south-west France, under the influence of the moist climate caused by the Atlantic, show some peculiar features which, in the view of some, are sufficient to justify their separation from the rest of the Hispano-Algerian portion. Among these is a marked development of the slugs, _Testacella_, _Arion_, and _Geomalacus_, the latter of which occurs even in south-western Ireland.

[Illustration: FIG. 194.--=A=, _Parmacella Valenciensii_ W. and B. × ⅔. (After Moquin-Tandon.) =A´=, shell of the same, natural size.]

_Spain._--The principal features are the development of the _Macularia_, _Iberus_, and _Gonostoma_ groups of _Helix_, and the occurrence of the remarkable slug _Parmacella_, which is found in many other parts of the sub-region, and extends eastward as far as Afghanistan. _Clausilia_ has but few species, mostly in the north. There are four species of land operculates, one of which is referred to a genus (_Tudora_) now living only in the West Indies, but which occurs in the Eocene fossils of the Paris basin. In the south there are several species of _Melanopsis_ and _Neritina_.

The _States of Northern Africa_ have a thoroughly Mediterranean fauna, whose facies on the whole shows rather more affinity to Spain than to Sicily. The Helices of Morocco and Algeria belong to the same groups as those of southern Spain. Many are of a dead white colour, the better to resist the scorching effect of the sun. _Ferussacia_ is abundant, _Geomalacus_ and _Parmacella_ are represented by a single species each, and there is one _Clausilia_. According to Kobelt,[366] the original land connexion between southern Spain and Morocco must have been much more extensive than is usually assumed, and probably reached at least to the meridian of Oran and Cartagena. The Mollusca of Oran and Cartagena are, according to him, much more closely related than those of Oran and Tangier, or those of Cartagena and Gibraltar, but at Cartagena some species, which are characteristic of the Mediterranean coasts from Syria westward, disappear, are absent from the rest of Spain and from Morocco, but reappear on the south-western coasts of France. These species may possibly have pushed along that arm of the sea which, when the Straits of Gibraltar were closed as far as the latitude of Oran and Cartagena, united in comparatively recent times the Bay of Biscay with the Gulf of Lions.

The following genera, which do not occur in Spain, have probably spread into northern Africa as far as Algeria, _via_ Sicily and Tunis, namely, _Glandina_ (1 sp.), _Daudebardia_ (1 sp.), _Pomatias_ (2 sp.). Tunis shows strong traces of Sicilian influence, and Kobelt found a colony of snails, of Sicilian affinities, as far west as Tetuan.

_The Sahara._--The Algerian Sahara contains, in many places, a sub-fossil Molluscan fauna which appears to show that the district has, in quite recent times, undergone a gradual desiccation. The species are mainly fresh-water, including _Melania_, _Melanopsis_, and _Corbicula_, with here and there valves of _Cardium edule_, and indicate, on the whole, an affinity with recent Egyptian, rather than North African species. It is probable that a vast series of _étangs_, or brackish-water lakes, once stretched along this region, and were ultimately connected with the sea somewhere between Tunis and Egypt.

[Illustration: FIG. 195.--Characteristic shells of S. France: =A=, _Helix_ (_Macularia_) _niciensis_ Fér.; =B=, _Leucochroa candidissima_ Drap.]

(ii) _Southern France._--The southern portion of France bordering on the Mediterranean contains many species, especially of _Helix_, which do not occur in the centre and north. Amongst these are--

Leucochroa candidissima Drap. Hyalinia olivetorum Gmel. Zonites algirus L. Helix rangiana Desh. „ serpentina Fér. „ niciensis Fér. „ splendida Drap. „ vermiculata Müll. „ melanostoma Drap. „ aperta Born. „ ciliata Ven. „ explanata Müll. „ apicina Lam. „ cespitum Drap. „ Terverii Mich. „ pyramidata Drap. „ trochoides Poir. Ferussacia folliculus Gron. Rumina decollata L. Pupa megacheilos C. and J.

Several species of fresh-water _Hydrobia_ (_Bithynella_) occur. The district, on the whole, unites certain characteristics derived from northern Italy with those of eastern Spain.

(iii) The _Italo-Dalmatian_ district includes Italy and the neighbouring islands (Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta), and the regions at the head and north-eastern shores of the Adriatic (Carinthia, Carniola, Croatia, and Dalmatia), the line which separates these latter districts from the fauna of southern Austria, Bosnia, and Servia being very difficult to define.

[Illustration: FIG. 196.--_Helix_ (_Pomatia_) _aperta_ L., S. France, showing epiphragm.]

[Illustration: FIG. 197.--_Helix_ (_Campylaea_) _zonata_ Stud., Piedmont.]

[Illustration: FIG. 198.--_Helix_ (_Iberus_) _strigata_ Müll., Florence.]

_Italy_, with the neighbouring islands, has a rich molluscan fauna. In the sub-Alpine districts of northern Italy the prominent _Helix_ groups are _Campylaea_, _Pomatia_, and _Anchistoma_, which in the south are generally replaced by _Iberus_, which here attains its maximum development. Large _Hyalinia_ are abundant in the north, and _Pomatias_ and _Clausilia_ are frequent all along the Apennines. _Sicily_ has about 250 species, half of which are peculiar. Helices of the _Iberus_ type abound, but _Campylaea_ is reduced to two species. Many peculiar forms of _Clausilia_ occur, especially a latticed type of great beauty. _Ferussacia_ and _Pupa_ are well represented, and there are one each of _Glandina_ and _Daudebardia_.

_Dalmatia_ and the adjacent districts are chiefly remarkable for the rich development of _Clausilia_, which here attains its maximum (nearly 100 species). The _Campylaea_ section of _Helix_ is represented by its handsomest forms, many of which are studded with short hairs. Here too is the headquarters of _Zonites_ proper, which stretches westward as far as Provence, and eastward to Asia Minor; and also of the single European _Glandina_, which has a similar eastward range, but spreads westward through Italy and Sicily to Algeria, not occurring in southern France. The land operculates are chiefly represented by _Pomatias_, and among the fresh-water operculates are a _Melania_ and a _Lithoglyphus_, the latter having probably spread from the basin of the Danube.

[Illustration: FIG. 199.--=A=, _Clausilia crassicosta_ Ben., Sicily; =B=, _Clausilia macarana_ Zieg., Dalmatia; =B´=, clausilium of same.]

(iv) The _Egypto-Syrian_ district extends along the south-eastern shores of the Mediterranean from Tripoli to North Syria, and eastward to the Euphrates valley. Lower Egypt alone belongs to this portion, the fauna of Upper Egypt being of an entirely tropical character, and belonging to the Ethiopian Region.

_Lower Egypt._--The Mollusca of Lower Egypt stand in the unique position of belonging, half to the Palaearctic, and half to the Ethiopian Region. The land Mollusca are of a distinctly Mediterranean type, while the fresh-water, directly connected as they are by the great highway of the Nile with regions much farther south, contain a large admixture of thoroughly tropical genera (_Ampullaria_, _Lanistes_, _Melania_, _Cleopatra_, _Corbicula_, _Cyrena_, _Iridina_, _Spatha_, _Mutela_). The _Helices_, which are not numerous, are rather a mixture of circum-Mediterranean species than of a specially distinctive character. _H. desertorum_, however, belonging to the group _Eremophila_, is characteristic. There is a single _Parmacella_, but the physical features of the country are unfavourable to the occurrence of such genera as _Clausilia_, _Pupa_, _Hyalinia_, and the land operculates.

_Syria._--The Mollusca, especially in the more mountainous regions of the north, are much more varied and numerous than those of Egypt. _Clausilia_ is again fairly plentiful, and the Helicidae are represented by some striking forms of the sections _Levantina_, _Pomatia_, and _Nummulina_. _Leucochroa_ has several curious types with a constricted aperture, and the Agnatha are represented by _Libania_, a peculiar form of _Daudebardia_. A prominent feature is the occurrence of a number of large white _Buliminus_ of the _Petraeus_ section (Fig. 200). Land operculates appear to be absent, but _Melanopsis_ and _Neritina_ are abundant. The Dead Sea contains no Mollusca, but Lake Tiberias has a rich fauna, including the above-mentioned genera, with a _Corbicula_ and several _Unio_.

[Illustration: FIG. 200.--=A=, _Buliminus_ (_Petraeus_) _labrosus_ Oliv., Beyrout; =B=, _Buliminus_ (_Chondrula_) _septemdentatus_ Roth., Palestine.]

_Upper Mesopotamia_ appears to possess a mixture of Syrian and Caucasian forms, including a _Parmacella_. Lower Mesopotamia has an exceedingly poor land fauna, but is comparatively rich in fresh-water species, the growing eastern character of which is shown by the occurrence of several _Corbicula_ and _Pseudodon_, and of a _Neritina_ of a distinctly Indian type.

(_b_) The _Pontic province_ extends from Western Austria to the Sea of Azof, and includes Austria, Hungary, Roumania, the Balkan peninsula (so far as it does not form part of the Mediterranean sub-region), the islands of the Greek Archipelago, southern Russia and the Crimea, and Asia Minor. It thus practically corresponds to the whole Danube basin, together with the lands bordering on the Black Sea, except at the extreme east, which belongs to the Caucasian sub-region. Fischer separates off Greece, Asia Minor (except the northern coast-line), and the intervening islands, with Crete and Cyprus, as constituting a portion (Hellado-Anatolic) of the Mediterranean sub-region proper. These districts, however, appear to possess scarcely sufficient individuality to warrant their separate consideration.

A prominent characteristic of the Pontic Mollusca is the great abundance of _Clausilia_ and _Buliminus_. In the islands east and west of Greece _Clausilia_ forms a large proportion of the fauna, each island, however small, possessing its own peculiar forms. The Helices belong principally to the groups _Campylaea_ (which is very abundant in Austro-Hungary), _Pomatia_ (Greece and Asia Minor), and _Anchistoma_. _Macularia_ is comparatively scarce, but is represented in Greece by one very large form (_Codringtonii_ Gray). _Zonites_ proper has its metropolis in this sub-region, and the Danube basin contains one or two species of _Melania_ and _Lithoglyphus_. _Buliminus_ is abundant throughout the sub-region, in the sub-genera _Zebrina_, _Napaeus_, _Mastus_, and _Chondrula_. Several striking forms of _Zebrina_ (_Ena_) are peculiar to the Crimea.

(_c_) _The Caucasian Province._--The limits of this province can hardly be exactly defined at present. It appears, however, to include the whole line of the Caucasus range, Armenia, and North Persia.

The land Mollusca are abundant and interesting. Among the carnivorous genera are four species of _Daudebardia_, a _Glandina_, and three peculiar forms of naked slug, _Pseudomilax_, _Trigonochlamys_, and _Selenochlamys_. There is a single _Parmacella_, the same species as the Mesopotamian, and a good many forms of _Limax_. _Vitrina_ and _Hyalinia_ are well represented, and the predominant groups of _Helix_ are _Euloto_, _Cartusiana_, _Xerophila_, and _Fruticocampylaea_, the last being peculiar. _Clausilia_ and _Pupa_ are rich in species, together with _Buliminus_ of the _Chondrula_ type. One _Clausilia_ of the _Phaedusa_ section, together with a _Macrochlamys_ (Transcaspian only), a _Corbicula_, and a _Cyclotus_, show marked traces of Asiatic affinity. There is one species each of _Acicula_ and _Cyclostoma_, and one of _Pomatias_.

The Caspian Sea, like Lakes Baikal and Tanganyika, is distinguished by the possession of several remarkable and peculiar genera. The sea itself, the waters of which are brackish, is 80 feet below the level of the Black Sea, and is no doubt a relict of what formed, in earlier times, a very much larger expanse of water. Marine deposits containing fauna now characteristic of the Caspian, have been found as far north as the Samara bend of the Volga. It is probable, therefore, that in Post-pliocene times an arm of the Aralo-Caspian Sea penetrated northward up the present basin of the Volga to at least 54° N. The Kazan depression of the Volga (55° N.) also contains characteristic Caspian fossils.[367] According to Brusina,[368] the Caspian fauna, as a whole, is closely related to the Tertiary fauna of southern Europe.

Twenty-six species of univalve Mollusca, the majority being modified forms of _Hydrobia_, have been described from the Caspian, namely, _Micromelania_ (6), _Caspia_ (7), _Clessinia_ (3), _Nematurella_ (3), _Lithoglyphus_ (1), _Planorbis_ (1), _Zagrabica_ (1), _Hydrobia_ (2), _Neritina_ (2). The bivalves are mostly modified forms of _Cardium_ (_Didacna_, _Adacna_, _Monodacna_), which also occur in estuaries along the north of the Black Sea. A form of _Cardium edule_ itself occurs, and numberless varieties of the same species are found in a semi-fossil condition in the dry or half dry lake-beds, which are so abundant throughout the Aral district.

(_d_) _The Atlantidean province_ consists of the four groups of islands, the Madeiran group, the Canaries, the Azores, and the Cape Verdes.

_The Madeiran group_ contains between 140 and 150 species of Mollusca which may be regarded as indigenous, the great majority of which are peculiar. Only 11 species are common to Madeira and to the Azores, and about the same number, in spite of their much greater proximity, to Madeira and the Canaries. No less than 74 species, or almost exactly one-half, belong to _Helix_, and 9 to _Patula_. A considerable number of the Helices are not only specifically but generically peculiar, the genera bearing close relationship to those occurring in the Mediterranean region. As a rule they are small in size, but often of singular beauty of ornamentation. Various forms of _Pupa_ are exceedingly abundant (28 sp.), as is also _Ferussacia_ (12 sp.). There are also 3 _Clausilia_ (which genus occurs on this group alone), and 3 _Vitrina_ (a genus which occurs on all the groups). The land operculates are represented solely by 4 _Craspedopoma_, which is common to all the groups except the Cape Verdes.

[Illustration: FIG. 201.--Characteristic land Mollusca from the Madeira group: =A=, _Helix_ (_Irus_) _laciniosa_ Lowe, Madeira; =B=, _Helix_ (_Hystricella_) _turricula_ Lowe, Porto Santo; =C=, _Helix_ (_Iberus_) _Wollastoni_ Lowe, Porto Santo; =D=, _Helix_ (_Coronaria_) _delphinuloides_ Lowe, Madeira.]

_The Canaries_ have about 160 species, only about a dozen of which are not peculiar. As many as 75 of these belong to _Helix_ (the sub-genera being very much the same as in the Madeiran group), and 11 to _Patula_. There is 1 species of _Parmacella_ (which occurs in this group alone), and 6 of _Vitrina_, of considerable size. A remarkable slug (_Plectrophorus_) was described from Teneriffe by Férussac many years ago, but it has never been rediscovered, and is probably mythical, or wrongly assigned. _Buliminus_ (_Napaeus_) has as many as 28 species, all but one being peculiar, and _Ferussacia_ 7. _Cyclostoma_ has two indigenous species, which, with one _Hydrocena_ and one _Craspedopoma_, make up the operculate land fauna.

_The Azores_ are comparatively poor in Mollusca, having only 52 species, nearly two-thirds of which are peculiar. _Helix_ has 15 species, _Patula_ 4, and _Pupa_ 8. _Ferussacia_, so abundant in Madeira and the Canaries, is entirely absent, its place being taken by _Napaeus_ (7 sp.), which is curiously absent from Madeira, but richly represented in the Canaries. There are 7 _Vitrina_, while the land operculates consist of one each of _Craspedopoma_ and _Hydrocena_. A singular slug (_Plutonia_), with an ancyliform internal shell, is said to occur. The group was long believed to possess no fresh-water Mollusca, but two species (one each of _Pisidium_ and _Physa_) have recently been discovered.

_The Cape Verdes_, owing to the extreme dryness of their climate, are poor in land Mollusca. There are 11 _Helix_, nearly all of which belong to the group _Leptaxis_, which is common to Madeira and the Canaries. _Ferussacia_ is absent, _Buliminus_ is represented by a single species, and there are no land operculates. Ethiopian influence, however, as might be expected from the situation of the group, is seen in the occurrence of an _Ennea_, a _Melania_, and an _Isidora_.

It will be noticed how little countenance the molluscan fauna of these island groups gives to any theory of an Atlantis, any theory which regards the islands as the remains of a western continent now sunk beneath the ocean. Had ‘Atlantis’ ever existed, we should have expected to find a considerable proportion of the Mollusca common to all the groups, and perhaps to Europe as well, and there would apparently be no reason why a genus which occurred in one group should not occur in all. As a fact, we find the species extremely localised throughout, and genera occur and fail to occur in a particular group without any obvious reason. All the evidence tends to show that the islands are purely oceanic, and have been colonised from the western coasts of the Mediterranean, _i.e._ from the direction of the prevailing currents and winds.

(3) =Central-Asiatic Sub-region.=--The countries included in this vast sub-region are Turkestan, Songaria, Afghanistan, including the Pamirs, Western Thibet, and probably Mongolia. Kashmir belongs to the Indian fauna. At present the whole district is very imperfectly known; indeed, it is only at a few points that anything like a thorough investigation of the fauna has been made. It is therefore almost premature to pronounce any decided opinion upon the Mollusca, but all the evidence at present to hand tends to show that they belong to the Palaearctic and not to the Oriental system. This is especially the case with regard to the fresh-water Mollusca, many of which are specifically identical with those occurring in our own islands. A slight admixture of such widely distributed types as _Corbicula_ and _Melania_ occurs, but it is not sufficient to disturb the general European facies of the whole. It is possible that eventually the whole district may be regarded as a sub-region combining certain characteristics of the eastern portions of the Mediterranean basin with an extension of the septentrional element, due to higher elevation and more rigorous climate. The principal features in the land Mollusca appear to be the occurrence of a number of _Buliminus_ of the _Napaeus_ group, a few _Parmacella_ (Afghanistan being the limit of the genus eastward), _Clausilia_, _Pupa_, _Limax_, and _Helix_, with several stray species of _Macrochlamys_.

=B. The Oriental or Palaeotropical Region=

This region includes all Asia to the south of the boundary of the Palaearctic region, that is to say, India, with Ceylon, Burmah, Siam, and the whole of the Malay Peninsula, China proper, with Hainan and Formosa, and Japan south of Yesso. It also includes the Andamans and Nicobars, and the whole of Malaysia, with the Philippines, as far eastward as, and including Celebes with the Xulla Is., and the string of islands south of the Banda Sea up to the Ké Is. The Moluccas, in their two groups, are intermediate between the Oriental and Australasian regions.

In this vast extent of land two distinct centres of influence are prominent--the Indian and the Chinese. Each is of marked individuality, but they differ in this essential point, that while the Chinese element is decidedly restricted in area, being, in fact, more or less confined to China itself and the adjacent islands, the Indian element, on the other hand, extends far beyond continental Asia, and embraces all the Malay islands to their farthest eastward extent, until it becomes overpowered by the Papuan and Australian fauna. Upper Burmah, with Siam, forms a sort of meeting-point of the two elements, which here intermingle in such a way that no very definite line of demarcation can be drawn between them.

Thus we have--

{ { (_a_) Indian Province { 1. _Indo-Malay Sub-Region_ { (_b_) Siamese Province =Oriental Region= { { (_c_) Malay Province { { (_d_) Philippine Province { { { (_a_) Chinese Province { 2. _Chinese Sub-Region_ { (_b_) Japanese Province

The Indo-Malay fauna spreads eastward from its metropolis, but has practically no westward extension, or only such as may be traced on the eastern coasts of Africa and the off-lying islands. There appears to exist no other case in the world where the metropolis of a fauna is so plainly indicated, or where it lies, not near the centre, but at one of the ends of the whole area of distribution.

Comparing the two sub-regions, the Chinese is distinguished by the great predominance of _Helix_, while in the Indo-Malay sub-region _Nanina_ and the related genera are in the ascendancy. In India itself there are only 6 genera of true Helicidae, poorly represented in point of numbers; in China there are at least three times this amount, most of them abundant in species. The Indo-Malay sub-region, on the other hand, is the metropolis of the Naninidae, which abound both in genera and species. In the Chinese sub-region _Clausilia_ attains a development almost rivalling that of S.E. Europe, while in India there are scarcely a dozen species. A marked feature of the Indo-Malay sub-region is the singular group of tubed land operculates (_Opisthoporus_, _Pterocyclus_, etc.). In China the group is only represented by stragglers of Indian derivation, while the land operculate fauna, as a whole, is distinctly inferior to the Indian. Another characteristic group of the Indo-Malay region is _Amphidromus_, with its gaudily painted and often sinistral shell; the genus is entirely absent from China proper and Japan, where its place is taken by various small forms of the _Buliminus_ group. Fresh-water Mollusca, especially the bivalves and operculates, are far more abundant in the Chinese sub-region than in the Indo-Malay.

(1) The =Indo-Malay Sub-region=.--(_a_) _The Indian Province_ proper includes the peninsula of Hindostan, together with Assam and Upper and Lower Burmah. To the east and extreme north-east, the boundaries of the province are ill-defined, and the fauna gradually assimilates with the Siamese on the one hand and the Chinese on the other. Roughly speaking, the line of demarcation follows the mountain ranges which separate Burmese from Chinese territory, but the debatable ground is of wide extent, and Yunnan, the first Chinese province over the border, has many species common with Upper Burmah.

The gigantic ranges of mountains which bound the sub-region to the north-west and north limit the extension of the Indian fauna in those directions in a most decisive manner. There is no quarter of the world, even in W. America, where a mountain chain has equal effect in barring back a fauna. In the north of Kashmir, where the great forests end, there is a most complete change of environment as the traveller gains the summit of the watershed; but Kashmir itself distinctly belongs to the Indian and not the Palaearctic system. The great desert to the south of the Punjab is equally effective as a barrier towards the west.

The Mollusca of India proper include a very large number of interesting and remarkable genera. India is the metropolis of the great family of the Naninidae, or snails with a caudal mucus-pore, which are here represented by no less than 14 genera and over 200 species. The genera _Macrochlamys_, _Sitala_, _Kaliella_, _Ariophanta_, _Girasia_, _Austenia_, and _Durgella_ are at their maximum. _Helix_ is scarcely represented, containing only about 30 inconspicuous species (leaving Ceylon out of account). _Buliminus_ is abundant, especially in the north. The Stenogyridae are represented by _Glessula_, which is exceedingly abundant in India, but has only a few straggling representatives in the rest of the Oriental region. Among the Pupidae is the remarkable form _Boysia_, with its twisted upturned mouth, while _Lithotis_ is a peculiar form allied to _Succinea_, to which group also probably belongs _Camptonyx_, a limpet-like form with a very small spire, peculiar to the Kattiawar peninsula. _Camptoceras_, an extraordinarily elongated sinistral shell, with a loosely coiled spire, is peculiar to the N.W. Provinces.

Among the fresh-water pulmonates is an _Ampullarina_, a genus only known elsewhere from the Fiji Is. and E. Australia. _Cremnoconchus_ is a form of _Littorina_, peculiar to the W. Ghâts, which has habituated itself to a terrestrial life on moist rocks many miles from the sea. The fresh-water operculates include the peculiar forms _Mainwaringia_, from the mouth of the Ganges (intermediate between _Melania_ and _Paludomus_), _Stomatodon_, _Larina_, _Fossarulus_, _Tricula_, and others. The bivalves are neither numerous nor remarkable; _Velorita_, a genus of the Cyrenidae, is peculiar.

[Illustration: FIG. 202.--Characteristic Indian Mollusca: =A=, _Hypselostoma tubiferum_ Blanf.; =B=, _Camptoceras terebra_ Bens.; =C=, _Camptonyx Theobaldi_ Bens.]

[Illustration: FIG. 203.--_Streptaxis Perroteti_ Pfr., Nilghiri Hills: =A=, adult; =A´=, young form.]

The land operculate fauna of India is singularly rich and varied. About 25 genera, and at least 190 species, occur. Here we find the metropolis of _Cyclophorus_ among the larger forms, and of _Diplommatina_ and _Alycaeus_ among the smaller. A large proportion of the operculate genera are quite peculiar to the extreme south of India and Ceylon. The appearance of a few species of the European genus _Pomatias_ is very remarkable.

The carnivorous genera are poorly represented. A few _Ennea_ occur, while _Streptaxis_ is practically confined to the extreme south and north-east.

_Land and Fresh-water Mollusca of India proper_

Streptaxis 9 Ennea 8 Helicarion 15 Girasia 14 Austenia 11 Ibycus 1 Africarion 2 Durgella 4 Ariophanta 15 Xesta 8 Macrochlamys 78 Microcystis 7 Sitala 20 Kaliella 35 Hemiplecta 15 Sesara 3 Trochomorpha 5 Trochomorphoides 1 Parmacella (?) 1 Tebennophorus 1 Anadenus 4 Plectopylis 11 Plectotropis 3 Trachia 12 Thysanota 1 Camaena 1 Amphidromus 2 Boysia 1 Petraeus 14 Cerastus 6 Rachis 5 Cylindrus 1 Pupa 15 Hapalus 4 Clausilia 10 Subulina 2 Opeas 6 Glessula 49 Geostilbia 3 Succinea 11 Lithotis 2 Vaginula 1 Camptonyx 1 Coelostele 1 Carychium 3 Ancylus 1 Limnaea 7 Camptoceras 3 Planorbis 10 Ampullarina 1 Melania 17 Mainwaringia 1 Paludomus 10 Stomatodon 1 Larina 1 Cremnoconchus 3 Fairbankia 2 Tricula 1 Bithynia 9 Fossarulus 1 Stenothyra 3 Vivipara 4 Valvata 1 Ampullaria 4 Assiminea 9 Acmella 2 Pomatias 4 Diplommatina 63 Pupina 1 Streptaulus 1 Coptochilus 3 Alycaeus 49 Lagochilus 1 Cyclophorus 12 Scalaina 1 Micraulax 2 Jerdonia 10 Spiraculum 4 Otopoma 1 Cyclotopsis 2 Georissa 1 Modiola 1 Scaphula 1 Unio 40 Solenaia 1 Cyrena 13 Sphaerium 1 Pisidium 5 Velorita 2 Tanysiphon 1 Novaculina 1 Nausitora 1

_The Cingalese district_, which almost approaches the character of a distinct province, presents several remarkable points of dissimilarity from the rest of India. It consists of the island of Ceylon, and of a portion of S. India whose exact limits have yet to be defined. It appears, however, that the Western or Malabar coast, with the hills parallel to it, is more akin to Ceylon than the Eastern or Coromandel coast. The Travancore, Malabar, and S. Canara districts, with the Palnai, Anamalai, and Nilghiri Hills, are markedly Cingalese, while there seems to be no distinct evidence of similar relationship on the part of the Madras or even the Cuddalore district.

Among the principal features of the Cingalese district is the occurrence of three peculiar genera of _Helix_, one (_Acavus_) large and finely coloured, another (_Corilla_) smaller, with a singularly toothed aperture. While the _Corilla_ group shows relations with _Plectopylis_ and other Burmese and Siamese sub-genera _Acavus_ (Fig. 204) is totally distinct from any other Indian form, and shows signs of close relationship, in the great size of the embryonic shell, to the Helices of Madagascar (p. 335). In Ceylon the group is entirely isolated, and its occurrence, besides decisively separating that island from India, Burmah, and Siam, forms a most interesting problem in the history of distribution. _Eurystoma_, with a single species (_E. vittata_ Müll.), is also peculiar.

As usual when _Helix_ gains ascendancy, the Naninidae retrogress. _Durgella_, _Austenia_, and _Girasia_ are absent altogether, while _Macrochlamys_, _Sitala_, _Kaliella_, etc., are present in greatly diminished numbers. The sub-genus _Beddomea_ is peculiar, a form directly related to _Amphidromus_ (Siam and Malacca). The fresh-water operculate _Philopotamis_ is peculiar, but for one species found in Sumatra; while _Tanalia_ is quite peculiar. But the forms which, next to the _Helices_, most emphasise the separation of the Cingalese district are the land operculates. There are eleven genera or sub-genera of land operculates which do not occur in the rest of India proper. Two (_Aulopoma_ and _Cataulus_) are quite peculiar, while the other nine are represented in Burmah, Siam, and the Malay islands, but not in India. On the other hand, _Diplommatina_ and _Alycaeus_, so profusely abundant in India, have not yet been discovered in Ceylon. Among the slugs, _Tennentia_ is a peculiar genus, whose nearest relation occurs in the Seychelles.

[Illustration: FIG. 204.--_Helix_ (_Acavus_) _Waltoni_ Reeve, Ceylon, showing embryonic shell (_emb_). × ⅔.]

_Genera and Subgenera occurring in the Cingalese District, but not in N. and Central India_

Streptaxis Tennentia Acavus Eurystoma Corilla Beddomea Philopotamis Tanalia Theobaldius Leptopomoides Craspedotropis Pterocyclus Aulopoma Ditropis Cyathopoma Mychopoma Cataulus Nicida Opisthostoma

The district consisting of _Upper Burmah_, _Pegu_, _Tenasserim_, and _Aracan_, while essentially a part of the Indian province, contains several Siamese genera which are not found in India proper, as well as several which are at present peculiar. Amongst the former category are, of Helicidae, a single representative each of the genera _Camaena_ (Siamese and Chinese) and _Aegista_ (Chinese). Influence of the same kind is seen in the increased numbers of _Plectopylis_ (14 sp.) and _Plectotropis_ (5 sp.), of _Clausilia_ (10 sp.) and _Amphidromus_ (5 sp.), and of the large tubed operculates (11 sp. in all). _Sesara_ and _Sophina_ among the Naninidae are strange to India, while _Hyalimax_ is common only to the Andamans, Nicobars, and Mascarene Is. _Hypselostoma_ (Fig. 202, A) is a most remarkable genus of the Pupidae, reminding one of _Anostoma_ of the New World. It is peculiar to the peninsula, but for one species in the Philippines. Among the Pupinidae, we have the peculiar _Raphaulus_ and _Hybocystis_ (Fig. 205), a very remarkable form, of which another species occurs at Perak. Two _Helicina_ mark the most westward extension of the genus on the mainland. In the extreme north of Upper Burmah, Indian and Chinese forms intermingle.

[Illustration: FIG. 205.--_Hybocystis gravida_ Bens. Young and adult.]

The Burmese district, together with the Indian and Siamese provinces, is pre-eminently the home of a group of Mollusca, originally of marine origin, which have permanently habituated themselves to a brackish or fresh-water existence. They belong to widely different families, and even Orders. Besides _Cremnoconchus_ mentioned above, we have, among the bivalves, _Novaculina_, a _Solen_ living in fresh water in the Ganges, Irawadi, and Tenasserim estuaries; _Scaphula_, an _Arca_, one species of which occurs in the Ganges hundreds of miles above the tide-way (see Fig. 9, p. 14); and _Martesia_, a _Pholas_ from the Irawadi Delta. _Clea_ (which also occurs in Java and Sumatra) is probably an estuarine _Cominella_; a _Tectura_ has earned the name _fluminalis_ from its exclusive residence in the Irawadi R.; _Iravadia_ is probably a _Rissoina_ of similar habits, occurring from Ceylon round to Hong-Kong; _Brotia_ is a _Cerithium_ from an affluent of the River Salwin, and _Canidia_ is a _Nassa_, occurring in the embouchures of rivers from India to Borneo. Nowhere else in the world is there such a collection--not exhausted by this list--of marine forms caught in process of habituation to a fresh-water or even a land existence.

The _Andaman_ and _Nicobar_ Islands possess no peculiar features in their land Mollusca. They are closely related to the adjacent coasts of Lower Burmah. _Amphidromus_ (2 sp.) occurs in the Andamans alone, and _Clausilia_ (2 sp.) in the Nicobars alone, while _Hyalimax_ occurs in both groups. A remarkable _Helix_ (_codonodes_ Fér.) from the Nicobars appears to find its nearest relations in the isolated group from Busuanga and Mindoro (p. 315). Land operculates are abundant, in the Nicobars actually outnumbering the pulmonates (28 to 22). _Helicina_ and _Omphalotropis_, genera characteristic of small islands, are found on both groups.

(_b_) The _Siamese Province_ includes the area occupied by the districts known as Siam, Laos, Cambodia, Cochin China, Annam, and Tonquin. Along the whole of its northern frontier, the zoological is no more than a political boundary, while on the east the mountain ranges which part Siam from Pegu and Tenasserim are not of sufficient height to offer any effective barrier to distribution. The province is accordingly qualified to a considerable extent by Indian and Chinese elements.

_Streptaxis_ is, but for three _Ennea_, the sole representative of the carnivorous genera, and attains its maximum in the Old World. Partly owing to Chinese influence, the Helicidae, with 11 genera and 46 species, begin to regain their position as compared with the Naninidae (12 genera, 54 species). Of the Helicidae, _Acusta_ and _Hadra_ appear now for the first time, and, with _Plectotropis_, _Stegodera_, and _Clausilia_, form a marked Chinese element. _Amphidromus_, with 33 species, is the most characteristic land pulmonate. Several genera, whose nucleus of distribution lies among the islands farther east, appear to have penetrated as far as these coasts. Such are _Chloritis_, _Camaena_, and _Obbina_ among the Helicidae, _Trochomorpha_, and, of the operculates, _Helicina_.

[Illustration: FIG. 206.--_Cyclophorus siamensis_ Sowb., Siam.]

Land operculates are very richly developed. In all, there are 17 genera and 104 species known. The tubed operculates attain their maximum, and _Cyclophorus_ is even more abundant than in India. Fresh-water bivalves abound. _Dipsas_ and _Pseudodon_ are common to China, and _Unio_ and _Anodonta_ are profusely represented. A curious resemblance to S. America appears in this group, a single _Mycetopus_ occurring, the only species not Brazilian, while _Arconaia_ appears very closely to approach the _Hyria_ of the same locality. Several genera of the _Hydrobia_ type (_Pachydrobia_, _Jullienia_, _Chlorostracia_) are peculiar.

_Land and Fresh-water Mollusca of the Siamese Province_

Streptaxis 20 Ennea 3 Helicarion 7 Microcystis 3 Sesara (?) 1 Medyla 1 Xesta 4 Macrochlamys 6 Kaliella 5 Hyalinia (?) 1 Hemiplecta 14 Rhysota 2 Trochomorpha 6 Trochomorphoides 3 Plectopylis 5 Stegodera 2 Plectotropis 12 Trachia 3 Fruticicola 2 Acusta 2 Chloritis 8 Dorcasia 1 Camaena 5 Hadra 5 Obbina 1 Amphidromus 33 Bocourtia 2 Buliminus 4 Hypselostoma 2 Tonkinia 1 Clausilia 15 Opeas 7 Spiraxis (?) 2 Subulina 1 Succinea 4 Vaginula 7 Limnaea 7 Planorbis 6 Canidia 13 Melania 39 Faunus 1 Bithynia 9 Wattebledia 1 Stenothyra 4 Hydrobia 1 Pachydrobia 9 Jullienia 6 Lacunopsis 6 Chlorostracia 4 Vivipara 39 Valvata 1 Ampullaria 15 Assiminea 7 Procyclotus 6 Dasytherium 2 Opisthoporus 5 Rhiostoma 7 Myxostoma 1 Pterocyclus 7 Cyclophorus 28 Leptopoma 10 Lagochilus 6 Pupina 8 Hybocystis 3 Alycaeus 6 Cataulus (?) 1 Diplommatina 2 Helicina 4 Georissa 2 Modiola (f. w.) 2 Dreissensia 3 Anodonta 17 Mycetopus 1 Pseudodon 18 Dipsas 4 Unio 64 Arconaia 1 Cyrena 6 Batissa 1 Corbicula 35

(_c_) _The Malay Province_ includes the peninsula of Malacca south of Tenasserim, and the series of islands beginning with Sumatra and stretching eastward up to the Ké Is., besides Borneo and Celebes. The Philippines form a separate province.

The Malay province is singularly poor in representative forms, whether we regard it as a whole or consider the islands separately. Not a single genus, with the exception of _Rhodina_ (Malacca), appears to be peculiar. The contrast with the West Indies is in this respect very striking. Java, for instance, which is well explored, and almost exactly eleven times the size of Jamaica, has about 100 species of land Mollusca, while Jamaica has about 460.

This want of individuality in the land Mollusca of the Malay islands is accounted for by a consideration of the sea depths which separate them from the Asiatic mainland. The accompanying map, the red line on which is intended to show what would be the result of an elevation of the sea bottom for no greater amount than 100 fathoms, exhibits clearly the fact that these islands are practically a part of Asia, a large stretch of very shallow sea extending between Siam and the greater part of the north-west coast of Borneo.

In all probability the three great islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo were united with the mainland of Asia, and with one another, at a period, geologically speaking, comparatively recent. This follows from the general uniformity of their land Mollusca, both as regards one another and as regards the mainland. Nor do the smaller members of the island series--Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Timor, and Timor Laut--show any marked individuality in the possession of peculiar genera. Wallace’s line is absolutely non-existent, so far as the land Mollusca are concerned. The really noticeable break in distribution comes with the Aru Is., for while the Tenimber group (Timor Laut, etc.) are decidedly Malay, and the Ké Is., in the poverty of our information, uncertain, the Aru Is. are as Papuan as New Guinea itself. The profound depths of the Banda Sea to the north, and the Timor Sea to the south, appear to have kept the islands from Flores to Timor Laut free from the intrusion of any Moluccan or any considerable Australian element. The Moluccas, as has been already remarked, besides possessing considerable peculiarities of their own, unite a mixture of the Malay and Papuan elements, and serve as a sort of debatable ground for the meeting of the two.

[Illustration: FIG. 207.--_Ariophanta Rumphii_ v. d. B., Java.]

The Malay peninsula is practically another island of somewhat the same shape and general trend as Sumatra, and about one-half the size. Its general relations--and the remark applies to the great Sunda Islands as well--appear to be rather more with Burmah, Tenasserim, and even the Cingalese district, than with Siam. Points of connexion between Ceylon and Sumatra, and Ceylon and Borneo, have already (p. 304) been brought out.

[Illustration:

Map to illustrate the GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION of the Land Mollusca of the EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO

_The red line marks the 100 fathom line_

London: Macmillan & Co. _London Stanford’s Geog^l. Estab^t_.]

It seems not impossible, from the point of view of the land Mollusca only, that the Sunda Islands may at one time have stretched much farther into the Bay of Bengal, prolonged, perhaps, into what are now the Andaman and Nicobar groups, while Ceylon and the western side of the Deccan, united into one continuous piece of land, and possibly separated from N. India by a wide stretch of sea, extended farther eastward in a long island, or series of islands.

Java, from its Mollusca, does not appear to hold the comparatively isolated position which its mammals and birds seem to indicate. Borneo, on the other hand, is more Siamese than Java or Sumatra in respect of a group whose metropolis is Siam, namely, the tubed operculates; for while that section is represented by 3 species in Sumatra and only 2 in Java, in Borneo it has as many as 19, _Rhiostoma_ not occurring in the two former islands at all. _Alycaeus_, _Lagochilus_, _Pupina_, and _Cyclophorus_ are found throughout, but _Hybocystis_ (Malacca, 1 sp.) does not quit the mainland. Borneo is remarkably rich in land operculates, especially noticeable being the occurrence (11 sp.) of _Opisthostoma_ (Fig. 208), a most extraordinary form of land shell (Ceylon, Siam), of _Diplommatina_ (17 sp.), and _Raphaulus_. The occurrence of a single _Papuina_ (Moluccas eastward) is very remarkable.

[Illustration: FIG. 208.--=A=, _Opisthostoma Cookei_ E. A. Smith, Borneo; =B=, _Opisthostoma grandispinosum_ G.-A., Borneo. Both × 8.]

_Amphidromus_ is a genus characteristic of the great Sunda Islands, attaining its maximum in Java (12 sp.). The Indian _Glessula_ still has one species each in Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. One species of _Streptaxis_[369] occurs in Malacca, but _Ennea_ (3 sp.) reaches as far east as Borneo and the Philippines. _Parmarion_, _Helicarion_, _Ariophanta_, and other groups of the Naninidae are well represented. _Hemiplecta_ and _Xesta_ are abundant and large, while the _Rhysota_ of Borneo contain some huge sinistral forms. _Rhodina_ is a remarkable form from Malacca, whose exact generic position is not yet settled. _Clausilia_ has a few species on all the islands, the last occurring on Ternate, and a single _Papuina_ (Moluccas and N. Guinea) occurs in Borneo.

The _Island of Celebes_ marks the beginning of a distinct decrease in the Indo-Malay element. The Naninidae lose ground, in proportion to the Helicidae, _Macrochlamys_, for instance, being represented by only one species, and _Hemiplecta_ by four. Other characteristic genera of the Indian region dwindle, such as _Amphidromus_, _Clausilia_, the tubed operculates, and _Cyclophorus_, while _Sitala_, _Kaliella_, _Glessula_, and _Plectotropis_ disappear altogether. Comparing the total numbers of Naninidae and Helicidae from Sumatra to New Guinea, we obtain this interesting result:--

Sumatra Java Borneo Celebes Moluccas N. Guinea _Nanina_ (all genera) 26 32 51 22 36 40 _Helix_ (all genera) 7 11 13 14 55 91

It will be noticed that the proportion of Naninidae to Helicidae, which has been nearly 4 to 1 in Sumatra, falls to 3 to 1 in Java, and rises again to 4 to 1 in Borneo (showing the essentially continental character of the island); in Celebes it further falls to 3 to 2, while in the Moluccas the scale turns and _Helix_ has the advantage by about 8 to 5, and in N. Guinea by more than 2 to 1.

[Illustration: FIG. 209.--_Amphidromus perversus_ L., Java.]

There is the same absence of marked features of individuality in Celebes as in the islands dealt with above. Not a single genus is peculiar. The nature of the sea bottom between Borneo and Celebes, with its indications of a somewhat broad bridge over an otherwise deep channel of separation, would seem to account for and suggest the true explanation of the facts as they stand. At the same time, there are indications of a certain amount of contrast between N. and S. Celebes. The Indian element, which constitutes the preponderating majority of the fauna, is common to north and south alike. But the north part of the island, in which _Obba_ and _Obbina_ occur, shows decided relationship with the Philippines, while the occurrence of three _Chloritis_ and one _Planispira_ tend to approximate S. Celebes rather with the Moluccas.

The _islands eastward of Java_, from Bali to Timor Laut and the Tenimber Is., present no trace of individual peculiarities; they simply carry on the Indo-Malay fauna as though along a great peninsula. Even Timor, surrounded as it is on all sides by sea of profound depth, shows no sign of possessing even one peculiar genus. _Amphidromus_, perhaps the most characteristic of all Indo-Malay genera, occurs throughout, diminishing in numbers as we go eastward (Bali, Lombok, and Sumbawa 4 sp., Timor 2 sp., Timor Laut 1 sp.), while _Plectotropis_ reaches no farther than Flores and Timor. The tubed operculates are altogether wanting. In Timor Laut we have Moluccan influence appearing in 3 _Chloritis_, and there is one (supposed) _Corasia_. Two _Helices_ of a marked Australian type (_Rhagada_) occur, one in Flores, the other on Dama I., south-west of Timor. The configuration of the sea bottom (see map) would lead us to believe that the north-west coast of Australia once stretched a good deal nearer to these islands.

The _Moluccas_, taken as a whole, constitute a transition region between the Indo-Malay and the Papuan faunas, uniting, to a very considerable extent, the features of both. They fall into two well-defined groups. The northern, or Ternate group, consists of Gilolo (Halmahera), Batchian, and the outlying islands as far south as and including Obi major. The southern, or Amboyna group, consists of Buru, Ceram, Amboyna, and the chain of islands to the south-east of Ceram, as far as, and including the Ké Is.

The Ternate group shows decidedly closer relations with New Guinea than the Amboyna group. Thus, among the _Helices_, the markedly Papuan genus _Papuina_ is represented by 7 species in the Ternate group, but by 1 in the Amboyna group. Again, the _Cristigibba_ section of _Planispira_, which is a Papuan form, has 4 representatives in the northern group, but only 1 in the southern. Certain points of connexion with Celebes come out in the southern group which are wanting in the northern; thus of _Chloritis_ there are 8 species in Amboyna, 0 in Ternate, 3 in Celebes.

In the Moluccas the Helicidae, for the first time as we move eastward from India, gain the ascendancy over the Naninidae, the numbers being, _Helix_ 55, _Nanina_ 36. If we take the groups separately, we find that in the Amboyna group the proportion is 22 to 23, while in the Ternate group it is 33 to 13, an additional proof that the Amboyna group is far less Papuan than the Ternate. Of _Planispira_, the most characteristic sub-genus of _Helix_, there are 12 species in the Ternate group, and 5 in the Amboyna. The section _Phania_, which contains 4 species of the finest _Helices_ known, is quite peculiar to the Ternate group. One species of _Obbina_, a sub-genus markedly Philippine, occurs in each group. Several of the Indo-Malay land operculates (_e.g._ _Ditropis_) reach their limit here, and here too we have the last _Clausilia_ (strangely absent from the Amboyna group). _Amphidromus_ is not reported on sufficient authority to warrant its insertion in the list.

_Land Mollusca of the Moluccas._ (T = Ternate, A = Amboyna[370] group)

Helicarion 1 A Euplecta 1 A Xesta 6 A, 4 T Macrochlamys 1 A Lamprocystis 4 A, 2 T Macrocycloides 4 A Sitala 1 A Kaliella 3 A, 1 T Trochomorpha 3 A, 3 T Endodonta 1 A Patula 1 A Plectotropis 1 T Eulota 1 A Chloritis 8 A Planispira 5 A, 12 T Cristigibba 1 A, 4 T Obbina 1 A, 1 T Phania 4 T Albersia 3 T Camaena 1 T Papuina 1 A, 7 T Pupa 3 A Vertigo 2 A Clausilia 1 T Opeas 4 A, 4 T Subulina 1 A Tornatellina 1 A Vaginula 1 A Melania 18 A, 4 T Faunus 1 A Vivipara 1 A Acmella 1 A Diplommatina 4 A, 2 T Registoma 1 T Pupinella 1 A Callia 2 A Leptopoma 4 A, 5 T Lagochilus 1 A, 1 T Ditropis 3 A Cyclotus 4 A, 6 T Omphalotropis 3 A Georissa 1 T Helicina 6 A, 3 T

(_d_) _The Philippine Province._--In the extraordinarily rich development of their Mollusca, the Philippines form a remarkable contrast with the poverty of the adjacent Malay islands. No less than 727 species of land Mollusca alone are known from the group, amongst which are included some of the finest and handsomest forms yet discovered. The main features of the fauna are Indo-Malay, with the addition of a certain Australasian element, and a remarkable development of individual characteristics.

The principal indigenous feature is the profuse abundance of the genus _Cochlostyla_, a group of large and elegant land shells, partly helicoid, partly bulimoid in shape, many of the species of which are covered with a curious hydrophanous epidermis. They are in the main of arboreal habits, living in the tops of the enormous forests which cover the greater part of the islands. As many as 247 species, belonging to 15 sub-genera, have been described.

[Illustration: FIG. 210.--_Cochlostyla_ (_Chrysalis_) _mindoroensis_ Brod., Mindoro, Philippines.]

[Illustration: FIG. 211.--_Cochlostyla_ (_Orthostylus_) _Portei_ Reeve, Luzon. × ⅔.]

The distribution of the sub-genera of _Cochlostyla_ on the different islands of the Philippine group affords important evidence on the geological relation of the islands to one another. Thus we find _Orthostylus_ and _Hypselostyla_ occurring in the central islands and S. Luzon, but not in Mindanao or Mindoro; we find _Chrysalis_ peculiar to Mindoro, _Prochilus_ to Mindoro and the Cuyos, _Ptychostyla_ to Luban, all these being sub-genera of very marked characteristics. Six out of the fifteen sub-genera are entirely absent from Mindanao, although occurring on the islands in the immediate vicinity. The little group Tablas-Romblon-Sibuyan are entirely deficient in certain sub-genera which occur on the islands surrounding them on all sides.[371]

Other forms peculiar to the Philippines are _Diaphora_, a section of _Ennea_ with a curiously produced mouth, and several sub-genera of the Naninidae (_Vitriniconus_, _Vitrinoidea_, _Hemitrichia_). The great _Rhysota_ here find their metropolis. Another very marked group of _Helix_ is _Obbina_, 19 of the 25 known species being peculiar.

The Helicidae proper of the Philippines are still held in check, as in the greater part of the Indian region, by the Naninidae. The single _Trachia_ and _Plectotropis_, and the 2 species each of _Plectopylis_ and _Satsuma_, indicate affinities with Indo-China. Further important Indian relationships are seen in the great _Nanina_ and _Cyclophorus_, which here attain almost Indian dimensions; in _Kaliella_ (8 sp.), _Sitala_ (2), _Clausilia_ (1). Among the operculates we still have 1 _Alycaeus_ and 1 _Coptochilus_. Singularly enough, several Indian genera which occur here are not found in the intervening islands of Borneo, Sumatra, or Java, _e.g._ _Streptaxis_, _Hypselostoma_, _Ditropis_, _Acmella_, and _Cyathopoma_. The curiously tubed Malay operculates, _Opisthoporus_, etc., fail to reach the Philippines proper, although occurring in Borneo and N. Celebes; one of them reaches Palawan. The strikingly Malay genus _Amphidromus_ reaches Palawan, but no farther (1 sp.), while 2 species reach Mindanao, and one of these penetrates as far as Bohol and S. Leyte. Amongst the slugs, _Mariaella_ occurs again only in the Seychelles, and _Tennentia_ only in Ceylon.

[Illustration: FIG. 212.--_Helix_ (_Obbina_) _rota_ Brod., Philippines.]

_Land and Fresh-water Mollusca of the Philippines_

Streptaxis 1 Ennea 10 Mariaella 3 Tennentia 1 Helicarion 21 Vitrinopsis 5 Vitrinoidea 1 Rhysota 17 Trochonanina 2 Euplecta 28 Hemiplecta 11 Hemitrichia 15 Xesta 2 Macrochlamys 5 Microcystis 3 Lamprocystis 17 Bensonia 4 Vitriniconus 16 Sitala 2 Kaliella 8 Trochomorpha 21 Endodonta 1 Plectopylis 3 Plectotropis 1 Aulacospira 3 Pupisoma 1 Satsuma 2 Dorcasia 2 Chloritis 7 Obbina 19 Papuina 1 Phoenicobius 7 Cochlostyla 247 Amphidromus 2 Hapalus (?) 4 Hypselostoma 1 Pupa 4 Clausilia 1 Subulina 3 Prosopeas 2 Opeas 4 Geostilbia 1 Tornalellina 1 Succinea 3 Vaginula 2 Ancylus 1 Limnaea 3 Planorbis 3 Physa 2 Melania 50 Pirena 2 Bithynia 1 Vivipara 7 Ampullaria 5 Acmella 2 Diplommatina 41 Arinia 6 Pupina 5 Registoma 7 Hargreavesia 1 Callia 2 Pupinella 3 Helicomorpha 4 Coptochilus 1 Alycaeus 1 Leptopoma 42 Lagochilus 11 Cyclophorus 31 Ditropis 7 Cyathopoma 5 Cyclotus 19 Omphalotropis 3 Helicina 18 Georissa 3 Anodonta 1 Cyrena 3 Corbicula 7

_Islands adjacent to the Philippines._--The Philippines are connected with Borneo by two distinct ridges or banks of elevation, which enclose between them the Soo-loo or Mindoro Sea. There can be little doubt that these ridges represent the ancient highway of transit, by which Indo-Malay species passed into the Philippines. The depth of the sea on either side is profound, ranging from an average of about 1000 fathoms west of Palawan to 2550 off the south-west coast of Mindanao.

It appears that the fauna of the Soo-loo ridge is definitely Philippine up to and including Bongao, Sibutu, and Bilatan, the last islands at the Bornean end of the ridge. On these are found two species of _Cochlostyla_ and an _Obbina_.

The Palawan ridge may also be described as more or less Philippine throughout. One species of _Cochlostyla_ occurs on Balabac, just north of Borneo, and two on Palawan, but these are perhaps counterbalanced by the definitely Indo-Malay _Amphidromus_ and _Opisthoporus_ (1 sp. each). At the northern end of the ridge, on Busuanga and Calamian, the Philippine element predominates.

Representatives of two remarkable groups of _Helix_ (_Camaena_ and _Phoenicobius_) occur along the Palawan ridge and in Mindoro. The _Phoenicobius_ find their nearest allies in the curious small group known as _Obba_, from N. Celebes, the _Camaena_ possibly in a type of _Helix_ (_Hadra_) occurring in New Guinea and N.E. Australia. The only other _Helix_ from the whole of the E. Indies which bears any resemblance to the _Phoenicobius_ group is _H. codonodes_ Pfr., which is peculiar to the Nicobars. A few forms assigned to _Camaena_ also occur in Further India and Siam. It would appear possible, therefore, that these two isolated groups are a sort of survival of a fauna which perhaps had once a much more extended range.

(2) The =Chinese Sub-region=.--The _Chinese Sub-region_ includes the whole of China from its southern frontier up to and including the basin of the Blue or Yang-tse River, together with the coast district, including Corea, perhaps as far north as Vladivostok, and the outlying islands of Hainan, Formosa, the Loo-Choo and Bonin groups, and Japan to the north of Niphon. It may be divided into two provinces, the Chinese and the Japanese.

(_a_) The fauna of the _Chinese province proper_ bears, in many respects, strong marks of relationship to that of India and Siam. Thus _Streptaxis_, _Helicarion_, _Macrochlamys_, _Kaliella_, _Sitala_, _Ariophanta_, _Rhysota_, _Hemiplecta_, _Diplommatina_, _Opisthoporus_, _Pterocyclus_, _Lagochilus_, and _Alycaeus_ all occur, especially in Southern China. The two points in which the sub-region bears special marks of individuality are _Helix_ and _Clausilia_. The sub-genera of _Helix_ which have their metropolis in China are _Satsuma_, _Cathaica_, _Aegista_, _Acusta_, _Euhadra_, _Plectotropis_, and _Plectopylis_. Sinistral forms (compare Fig. 213) are rather prevalent. In several cases--_e.g._ _Trichia_, _Gonostoma_, _Fruticicola_--there is a reappearance of forms which appear to belong to well-known European sub-genera. _Clausilia_ here attains a kind of second centre of distribution, and is represented by its finest forms, which belong to several peculiar sub-genera. The carnivorous Mollusca are not abundant, and are represented by _Rathouisia_ (a peculiar genus of naked slug), _Ennea_, and _Streptaxis_. In the western provinces _Buliminus_ is abundant in several sub-genera, one of which appears to be the European _Napaeus_.

[Illustration: FIG. 213.--_Helix_ (_Camaena_) _cicatricosa_ Müll., China.]

There is little which is striking in the operculates, which are most abundant in the south, and appear to be mainly derived from Indian and Siamese sources. The occurrence of _Helicina_ (3 sp.), _Omphalotropis_ (1), _Leptopoma_ (2), and _Realia_ (2), is evidence of some influence from the far East. _Heudeia_ is a very remarkable and quite peculiar form of _Helicina_ with internal plicae, perhaps akin to the Central American _Ceres_.

Fresh-water genera are exceedingly abundant, especially _Melania_, _Unio_, and _Anodonta_. The occurrence of _Mycetopus_ (a South-American genus) is remarkable. There are several peculiar forms of fresh-water operculates, whose exact position is hardly yet assured.

_Land and Fresh-water Mollusca of the Chinese Province_

Rathouisia 1 Streptaxis 7 Ennea 12 Parmarion 2 Helicarion 15 Euplecta 3 Macrochlamys 19 Microcystina 2 Microcystis 7 Kaliella 16 Sitala 8 Ariophanta 1 Rhysota 5 Hemiplecta 1 Trochomorpha 2 Limax 1 Philomycus 1 Patula 2 Gonostoma 4 Metodontia 2 Vallonia 1 Plectotropis 9 Fruticicola 11 Satsuma 14 Trichia 10 Cathaica 22 Aegista 10 Armandia 3 Acusta 15 Obbina 1 Camaena 5 Euhadra 14 Plectopylis 19 Stegodera 6 Chloritis 1 Hel. Inc. sed. 39 Buliminus 21 Buliminopsis 3 Buliminidius 3 Napaeus 14 Rachis (?) 4 Pupa 10 Clausilia 102 Opeas 12 Euspiraxis 1 Subulina 5 Stenogyra (?) 12 Succinea 8 Vaginula 7 Limnaea 2 Planorbis 6 Melania 44 Paludomus 3 Bithynia 12 Lithoglyphus 3 Melantho (?) 1 Pachydrobia 1 Prososthenia 2 Stenothyra 2 Hydrobia 2 Mecongia 1 Oncomelania 9 Margaracya 1 Rivularia 4 Delavaya 1 Fenouillia 1 Vivipara 34 Diplommatina 20 Pupina 6 Alycaeus 23 Leptopoma 2 Lagochilus 10 Cyclophorus 18 Coelopoma 1 Pterocyclus 3 Opisthoporus 4 Cyclotus 10 Scabrina 4 Ptychopoma 12 Omphalotropis 1 Realia 2 Pseudopomatias 1 Helicina 3 Georissa 4 Heudeia 1 Cyclas 1 Corbicula 50 Unio 53 Monocondylaea 1 Anodonta 55 Mycetopus 12 Pseudodon 1 Dipsas 4

The island of _Hainan_, in the extreme south of the sub-region, has 40 species of Mollusca, 22 of which are peculiar, but there is no peculiar genus.

The Mollusca of _Formosa_, although in many cases specifically distinct, show close generic relationship with those of China. The characteristic Chinese groups of _Helix_ and _Clausilia_ occur, and there is still a considerable Indian element in several species of _Streptaxis_, _Macrochlamys_, _Kaliella_, and _Alycaeus_. The occurrence of two _Amphidromus_, a genus which, though Siamese, is not found in China or Hainan, is remarkable.

The peninsula of _Corea_ must undoubtedly be included in the Chinese sub-region. It is true that the land operculates scarcely occur, but there are still a number of _Clausilia_, and several of the characteristic Chinese groups of _Helix_ are reproduced. In some points Corea appears to show more affinity to Japan than to China, four of the _Helices_ being specifically identical with those of Japan, but the peninsula is at present too little explored for any generalisations to be made as to its fauna in this respect.

(_b_) _Japanese Province._--Kobelt distinguishes four groups of Mollusca inhabiting Japan (_a_) circumpolar species, actually occurring in Europe, Siberia, or N. America, or represented by nearly allied species (these of course do not belong to the Japanese province as such); (_b_) Indo-tropical species; (_c_) species which are Chinese or akin to Chinese; (_d_) peculiar species, a mixture of two forms, southern and northern, the latter being chiefly _Hyalinia_, _Patula_, and _Fruticicola_. Out of a total of 193 Japanese species, at least 164 are peculiar.

The Japanese _Helices_ belong to sub-genera common to China (_Plectotropis_ 8, _Euhadra_ 21, _Acusta_ 23?); but the Naninidae scarcely occur at all. The principal feature of the fauna is the development of _Clausilia_, which presents some extraordinarily fine forms. One slug (_Philomycus_) is identical with an Indian species. The operculates, which consist mainly of a few species each of _Diplommatina_, _Cyclophorus_, _Pupinella_, _Pupina_, _Helicina_, and _Georissa_, belong almost exclusively to the southern islands Kiu-siu, Sikoku, and southern Niphon. The three species usually reckoned as _Japonia_ are probably forms of _Lagochilus_.

=C. The Australasian Region=

This region includes all the islands of the Pacific east of the Moluccas, and falls into three sub-regions--the Papuan, the Australian, and the Polynesian.

1. The =Papuan Sub-region= may be divided into--(_a_) the _Papuan Province_ proper, which includes New Guinea, with the Aru Is. and Waigiou, the Admiralty Is., New Ireland, New Britain, and the d’Entrecasteaux and Louisiade Groups; (_b_) the _Queensland Province_, or the strip of N.E. Australia from C. York to the Clarence R. (about 29° S. lat.); (_c_) the _Melanesian Province_, which includes the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, with the Loyalty Is. and the Viti Is. The Solomons form a transition district between the Papuan and Melanesian provinces, abounding on the one hand in characteristic Papuan _Helices_, while on the other they form the north-western limit of _Placostylus_, the group especially characteristic of the Melanesian province.

(_a_) _The Papuan Province._--The molluscan fauna of New Guinea is the richest and by far the most original of all the Australasian region. We find ourselves, almost in a moment, in a district full of new and peculiar forms. New Guinea may be regarded as the metropolis of the rich Helicidan fauna, which is also characteristic of the Moluccas to the west, of N. and N.E. Australia to the south and south-east, and of the Solomons and other groups to the north-east. Here abound species of _Papuina_ and _Insularia_ (the latter being quite peculiar), among which are found, if not the largest, certainly the most finished forms of all existing _Helices_. _Chloritis_ (13 sp.), _Planispira_ (5), and _Cristigibba_ (9) are common with the Moluccas, while a tropical Australian element is shown in _Pedinogyra_ (1) and _Hadra_ (4). Very remarkable, too, is the occurrence of one species of _Obbina_ and _Rhysota_, genera which culminate in the Philippines and here find their most eastward extension; while a single _Corasia_ serves to form a link between the _Corasia_ of the Philippines and those of the Solomon Is., if the latter are true _Corasia_.

We naturally find considerable traces of a Polynesian element, which appears to be principally characteristic of the eastern part of the island. Most noteworthy in this respect is the occurrence of _Partula_ (3), _Tornatellina_ (1), _Charopa_ (1), _Thalassia_ (3). As compared with the true _Pulmonata_, the operculates are feebly represented, and the great majority are of a markedly Polynesian type. Not a single _Cyclophorus_ occurs; _Lagochilus_, _Alycaeus_, and all the tubed operculates, so marked a feature of the Indo-Malay fauna, are conspicuous by their absence, and the prevailing genera are _Cyclotus_, _Helicina_, and a number of sections of _Pupina_. _Leptopoma_, as in the Philippines, is strongly represented. Not that an Indo-Malay element is altogether absent. We still have _Xesta_ (5), _Hemiplecta_ (8), and even _Sitala_ (2), but the great predominance of _Helix_ seems to have barred the progress, for the greater part, of the Indian Naninidae.

The slugs appear to be represented by a solitary _Vaginula_. A single _Perrieria_ is a very marked feature of union with Queensland, where the only other existing species (_P. australis_) occurs. The solitary _Rhytida_, so far the only representative of the carnivorous group of snails, emphasises this union still further. Little is known of the fresh-water fauna. _Melania_ (28 sp.) is predominant, but on the whole the relations are Australian rather than Indo-Malay. _Ampullaria_ is wanting, while a decisive point of similarity is the occurrence of _Isidora_ (3 sp.), a genus entirely strange to the Oriental region, but markedly characteristic of the Australasian.

_Land and Fresh-water Mollusca of New Guinea_

Rhytida 1 Helicarion 2 Rhysota 1 Hemiplecta 11 Xesta 2 Microcystis 3 Microcystina 2 Sitala 2 Oxytes (?) 2 Conulus 1 Trochomorpha 8 Nanina (?) 3 Charopa 1 Thalassia 3 Ochthephila(?) 1 Chloritis 13 Planispira 5 Cristigibba 9 Insularia 17 Obbina 1 Albersia 3 Hadra 4 Pedinogyra 1 Papuina 35 Corasia (?) 1 Bulimus (?) 1 Calycia 4 Partula 3 Pupa 1 Stenogyra 1 Tornatellina 1 Perrieria 1 Succinea 1 Vaginula 1 Limnaea 2 Isidora 3 Melania 28 Faunus 1 Vivipara 4 Diplommatina 1 Pupina 4 Pupinella 3 Omphalotropis 2 Bellardiella 2 Leptopoma 16 Cyclotus 5 Cyclotropis 5 Helicina 15 Unio 4 Cyrena 3 Corbicula 1 Batissa 8

_Waigiou_ is practically a part of New Guinea. Twelve genera and twenty species of Mollusca are known, eight of the latter being peculiar. The occurrence of _Papuina_, _Insularia_, and _Calycia_ sufficiently attest its Papuan relationship. Two species each of _Albersia_, _Chloritis_, and _Planispira_ occur.[372]

The _Aru Is._ are, as we should expect from their position, and

## particularly from the configuration of the adjacent sea bottom (see

map), markedly Papuan. At the same time they show unmistakable signs of long-continued separation from the parent island, for of their 36 land Mollusca 15, and of their 20 fresh-water Mollusca 9 are peculiar. The Papuan element consists in the presence of _Papuina_, _Albersia_, and _Cristigibba_. Moluccan influence is not absent, for the three _Helicina_, the _Albersia_, and one _Cyclotus_ are all Moluccan species. The fresh-water fauna appears to be a mixture of varied elements. The single _Segmentina_ is common to India, the _Glaucomya_ to Malacca and the Philippines, while the single _Batissa_ is also found in New Zealand.

_Land and Fresh-water Mollusca of the Aru Islands_

Xesta 4 Microcystis 1 Hyalinia(?) 1 Trochomorpha 1 Patula 1 Eulota 1 Chloritis 5 Cristigibba 2 Albersia 1 Papuina 4 Pupa 2 Stenogyra 2 Planorbis 1 Segmentina 1 Melania 14 Leptopoma 3 Moussonia 1 Realia 1 Cyclotus 3 Helicina 3 Cyrena 2 Glaucomya 1 Batissa 1

The _Louisiades_, the _d’Entrecasteaux_, and _Trobriand Is._, and _Woodlark I._, are closely related to New Guinea, containing no peculiar genera. Each group, however, contains a considerable proportion of peculiar species, an indication that their separation from New Guinea dates from a very distant period. From the Louisiades are known 34 species in all, 22 of which are peculiar.

The fauna of the _Admiralty Is._, of _New Hanover_, and _New Ireland_ is markedly Papuan, without any especial feature of distinction. The Admiralty Is. contain 15 sp. _Papuina_, 7 _Chloritis_, 1 _Planispira_, and 1 _Corasia_. A single _Janella_ shows relationship with the New Hebrides and with New Zealand. In New Ireland _Planispira_ (which is specially characteristic of W. New Guinea and the Moluccas) has disappeared, but there are 7 _Papuina_ and 6 _Chloritis_. The essentially Polynesian _Partula_ is present in both groups.

The prominent feature of the Mollusca of the _Solomon Is._ is the extraordinary development of _Papuina_, which here culminates in a profusion of species and singularity of form. The genus is arboreal, crawling on the branches and attaching itself to the leaves of trees and underwood. Of the 140 land _Pulmonata_ known from the group, no less than 50, or 36 per cent, are _Papuina_. Ten species of _Corasia_ occur, but whether the shells so identified are generically identical with those of the Philippines, is not satisfactorily determined. _Trochomorpha_, with 22 species, here attains its maximum. _Chloritis_ begins to fail, but still has 3 species. Indo-Malay influence still appears, though feebly, in _Hemiplecta_ (3), _Xesta_ (1), and possibly even _Macrochlamys_ (1). The _Rhytida_, the 3 _Hadra_, and possibly the _Paryphanta_ represent the Australian element. The growing numbers of _Partula_ (13), the small and inconspicuous land operculates (only 22 in all, with _Helicina_ very prominent), and the almost complete absence of fresh-water bivalves, show signs of strong Polynesian affinities. An especial link with the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and the Viti Is. is the occurrence of _Placostylus_ (16 sp.). It is very remarkable that this genus should occur in the Solomon Is. and not in New Ireland. The occurrence of _Streptaxis_, if authentic, is very noteworthy, the nearest species being from the Philippines.

_Land and Fresh-water Mollusca of the Solomon Islands_

Streptaxis (?) 1 Rhytida 1 Paryphanta (?) 1 Helicarion 2 Xesta 1 Macrochlamys 1 Hemiplecta 3 Microcystis 2 Trochomorpha 22 Nanina (?) 2 Patula 1 Thalassia 2 Chloritis 3 Philina 2 Hadra 3 Papuina 50 Merope 1 Corasia (?) 10 Placostylus 16 Partula 13 Succinea 1 Melania 18 Diplommatina 2 Pupina 4 Leptopoma 4 Omphalotropis 2 Cyclotus 1 Cyclotropis 2 Helicina 7 Unio 1

(_b_) _The Queensland Province._--The strip of coast-line from Cape York to the Clarence R. stands apart from the rest of Australia, and is closely connected with New Guinea. There can be little doubt that it has been colonised from the latter country, since an elevation of even 10 fathoms would create (see map) a wide bridge between the two. Many of the genera are quite strange to the rest of Australia. Land operculates are abundant, and of a Papuan type. Several of the characteristic Papuan genera of _Helix_ (_Papuina_, _Chloritis_, _Planispira_) occur, while _Hadra_ attains its maximum. _Panda_, _Pedinogyra_, and _Thersites_ are three remarkable groups in a rich _Helix_ fauna. _Parmacochlea_ is a peculiar form akin to _Helicarion_. The carnivorous Mollusca are represented by _Rhytida_, _Diplomphalus_ (New Caledonia), and _Elaea_. One species of _Janella_, a slug peculiar to this region, occurs. The predominant fresh-water genus is _Bulinus_ (_Isidora_). _Ampullaria_ and _Anodonta_ are entirely absent from Australia and New Zealand.

[Illustration: FIG. 214.--Characteristic Australian _Helices_: =A=, _H._ (_Hadra_) _pomum_ Pfr.; =B=, _H._ (_Thersites_) _richmondiana_ Pfr. × ⅔.]

[Illustration: Map D. _To face page 322._

MAP to illustrate the relations OF THE LAND MOLLUSCA OF NEW GUINEA WITH THOSE OF NORTH AUSTRALIA.

_The red line marks the 100 fathom line_

London: Macmillan & Co.]

_Land Mollusca of the Queensland Province_

Diplomphalus 1 Rhytida 10 Elaea 1 Parmacochlea 1 Helicarion 7 Nanina 3 Hyalinia 10 Thalassia 4 Charopa 5 Patula (?) 4 Macrocyclis (?) 1 Helicella 10 Planispira 8 Hadra 51 Chloritis 5 Pedinogyra 1 Thersites 1 Papuina 6 Panda 2 Helix (inc. sed.) 6 Bulimus (?) 1 Stenogyra 1 Tornatellina 4 Pupa 3 Vertigo 4 Perrieria 1 Succinea 3 Vaginula 1 Janella 1 Georissa 1 Pupina 16 Hedleya 1 Callia 1 Diplommatina 3 Ditropis 2 Dermatocera 1 Helicina 8

(_c_) _The Melanesian Province_ includes those islands on which the remarkable group _Placostylus_ occurs, the metropolis of whose distribution is New Caledonia. These islands are very possibly the remains of what was once a much wider extent of land. A single species of _Placostylus_ occurs both on Lord Howe’s I. and in the North I. of New Zealand, but this fact, while highly interesting as indicating a possible former extension of land in a south-easterly direction, is hardly sufficient to bring these islands within the province as now limited. The Solomon Is., although containing _Placostylus_ as far to the west as Faro I., form, as has been already stated, a transitional district to the Papuan province.

_New Caledonia._--The chief features of the Mollusca are the remarkable development of the helicoid carnivorous genera _Rhytida_ (30 sp.) and _Diplomphalus_ (13 sp.), and of _Placostylus_ (45 sp.). There is a stray _Papuina_, and a peculiar form _Pseudopartula_, but _Helix_ has almost entirely disappeared. Polynesian influence is represented by _Microcystis_ (3 sp.), the so-called _Patula_ (13 sp., many of which are probably _Charopa_), _Tornatellina_ (2 sp.), and _Helicina_ (20 sp.). _Partula_ does not reach so far south, but there are two species of _Janella_. The recurrence of _Melanopsis_ (19 sp.), absent from the whole Oriental region, is curious, and forms another link with New Zealand. The curious sinistral _Limnaea_ (_Isidora_), common with Australia and New Zealand, is abundant.

[Illustration: FIG. 215.--_Placostylus caledonicus_ Pet., New Caledonia, × ⅔.]

_The New Hebrides_ link New Caledonia and the Solomons by their possession of the typical heavy _Placostylus_ (5 sp.) of the former, and the lighter and more elegant _Charis_ (2 sp.) of the latter. There are 4 _Papuina_, and _Partula_ is abundant (18 sp.), but there is no evidence at present that the carnivorous genera or the _Melanopsis_ and _Isidora_ of New Caledonia occur.

_The Fiji Is._, by the possession of 14 _Placostylus_ of the _Charis_ section, which is entirely absent from the adjacent Tonga group, form the eastern limit of the province. There appears to be only a single _Partula_, but the Polynesian element, especially as seen in _Navicella_ (8 sp.), _Neritina_ (20 sp.), _Helicina_ (11 sp.), and _Omphalotropis_ (11 sp.), is very strong. The _Microcystis_ (9 sp.) and _Trochomorpha_ (14 sp.) are also of a Polynesian type.

(2) The =Australian Sub-region= includes the whole of Australia (with the exception of the Queensland province) and Tasmania, with New Zealand and the off-lying islands. The fauna, from the prevalence of desert, is scanty, especially in genera. Land operculates are almost entirely wanting. _Limax_ is not indigenous, though several species have become naturalised. The bulk of the fresh-water species belong to _Isidora_, and it is doubtful whether _Physa_ occurs at all. _Unio_ has a few species, and also _Vivipara_, but neither _Anodonta_ nor _Ampullaria_ occur. There are a few _Melania_ and _Neritina_.

_Tropical South Australia._--The Mollusca are scanty, and occur chiefly in the neighbourhood of the rivers, the soil being arid, with no shelter either of trees or rocks. Fresh-water species predominate, and the rich land fauna of Queensland is totally wanting. There are no land operculates, 6 _Hadra_, 1 _Bulimus_ (?), 1 _Stenogyra_.

_West Australia._--Owing to the deserts which bound it, the Mollusca are very isolated, only one species being common with N., S., and E. Australia. The chief characteristics are _Liparus_, a form intermediate between _Helix_ and _Bulimus_, and, among the _Helices_, the group _Rhagada_. There are no slugs, no carnivorous snails, and only three land operculates.

_Land Mollusca of West Australia_

Lamprocystis 1 Hyalinia 1 Patula 7 Chloritis 2 Gonostoma 2 Trachia 3 Xerophila 1 Rhagada 8 Hadra 5 Liparus 10 Pupa 4 Succinea 3 Cyclophorus 2 Helicina 1

In _Eastern and Southern Australia_ (New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia) the tropical element, so abundant in Queensland, almost entirely disappears, the last operculate (a _Helicina_) only reaching Port Macquarie, though several species of _Helicarion_ occur in the extreme south. _Hadra_ is still abundant in New South Wales (18 sp.) and S. Australia (10 sp.), but becomes scarce in Victoria (2 sp.); New South Wales has also one _Panda_ and two _Thersites_. _Cystopelta_ is common with Tasmania, and one of the Janellidae (_Aneitea_) with Queensland. The carnivorous snails are represented by _Rhytida_. _Caryodes_, a bulimoid group perhaps akin to _Liparus_, is common with Tasmania only.

_Tasmania._--About 80 species of land Mollusca are known, not more than 10 being common with Australia. No land operculates occur; _Endodonta_ and _Charopa_ are rare, and _Hadra_ has entirely disappeared, but _Pupa_ and _Succinea_ occur. Carnivorous genera are represented by _Paryphanta_, _Rhytida_, and _Rhenea_. _Anoglypta_ is a peculiar section of _Helix_, while _Caryodes_, _Cystopelta_, and _Helicarion_ are common with Australia. Among the fresh-water Mollusca are a _Gundlachia_ (see p. 345), and some forms of _Amnicola_ or _Hydrobia_, one of which (_Potamopyrgus_) is common only with New Zealand.[373]

_The Neozealanian Province._--The Mollusca of New Zealand, with the Kermadec, Chatham, and Auckland Is., are remarkably isolated. Such genera as _Nanina_, _Partula_, _Pupa_, _Stenogyra_, _Succinea_, _Vaginula_, _Truncatella_, _Helicina_, and _Navicella_, which might have been expected to occur, are entirely absent. The bulk of the land Mollusca are small and obscure forms, perhaps remains of a very early type, and appear to belong to the Zonitidae, neither _Patula_ nor _Helix_ occurring at all. The carnivorous forms are represented by _Schizoglossa_, a peculiar genus akin to _Daudebardia_, by _Paryphanta_, an extraordinary group of large shells with a thick leathery epidermis, and by _Rhytida_ and _Rhenea_. In spite of its extreme isolation, the general relations of the fauna are partly with New Caledonia, partly with E. Australia. The occurrence of _Placostylus_ has already been mentioned (p. 323), and three species of _Janella_, a genus which also occurs in Queensland and New Caledonia, indicate the same affinity. _Otoconcha_ is peculiar. The fresh-water Mollusca, besides the _Isidora_ characteristic of the sub-region, are

## partly related to New Caledonia through the occurrence of _Melanopsis_,

## partly to Tasmania through _Potamopyrgus_, while the peculiar _Latia_

is possibly akin to _Gundlachia_ (Tasmania). The land operculates number only 5 genera and 14 species in all, excluding a doubtful _Diplommatina_.[374]

_Land and Fresh-water Mollusca of the Neozealanian Province_

Schizoglossa 1 Paryphanta 5 Rhytida 6 Rhenea 2 Helicarion 1 Otoconcha 1 Microcystis 1 Trochonanina 1 Phacussa 3 Thalassohelix 5 Gerontia 2 Allodiscus 10 Pyrrha 1 Therasia 7 Phenacohelix 3 Suteria 1 Flammulina 13 Laoma 23 Endodonta 10 Charopa 28 Placostylus 1 Carthaea 1 Tornatellina 1 Janella 3 Latia 2 Ancylus 2 Limnaea 5 Amphipeplea 2 Planorbis 1 Isidora 7 Melanopsis 2 Potamopyrgus 4 Paxillus 1 Lagochilus 7 Omphalotropis 1 Realia 4 Hydrocena 1 Unio 9 Sphaerium 1 Pisidium 2

_Lord Howe’s I._ is remarkable as containing a _Placostylus_, which thus links the island with this province. The remainder of the fauna is Polynesian, with the exception of a species (common to the Fijis) of _Parmella_, a slug akin to _Helicarion_, _Parmacochlea_, and _Cystopelta_.

(3) The =Polynesian Sub-region= includes all the island groups of the central and southern Pacific (except those classified in the Papuan and Australian sub-regions), from the Pelews and Carolines in the west to the Marquesas and Paumotus in the east, and from the Tonga group in the south to the Sandwich Is. in the north. It may be subdivided into (_a_) the Polynesian province proper, and (_b_) the Hawaiian province, which includes the Sandwich Is. only.

[Illustration: FIG. 216.--Characteristic Polynesian Mollusca: =A=, _Achatinella vulpina_ Fér., Sandwich Is.; =B=, _Partula planilabrum_ Pease, Society Is.]

(_a_) The general features of the _Polynesian province_ are very similar throughout, although the Mollusca of each island group are in the main peculiar. The species are mostly small and obscure. _Helix_ scarcely occurs, its place being taken by small Zonitidae (_Microcystis_, _Charopa_, _Trochomorpha_, etc.), and by groups of so-called _Patula_ (_Endodonta_, _Pitys_, etc.), the exact position of which is not yet settled. _Libera_, remarkable for its method of ovipositing (p. 128), is peculiar to the Society and Hervey Is.; _Partula_ is almost universal, attaining its maximum (40 sp.) in the Society Is.; _Tornatellina_, _Pupa_, and _Vertigo_ occur throughout.

The land operculates consist chiefly of _Omphalotropis_, _Pupina_, _Realia_, and _Helicina_. _Diplommatina_ and _Palaina_ are abundant on the Pelews, and a _Moussonia_ occurs in the Samoa Is. _Ostodes_, a small form of _Cyclophorus_, is found in some of the southern groups. The fresh-water operculates are _Melania_, _Neritina_ (including _Clithon_, a sub-genus furnished with spines), and _Navicella_; there are no Unionidae, while fresh-water _Pulmonata_ are very scarce.

(_b_) The land Mollusca of the _Hawaiian province_ are distinguished by the possession of four entirely peculiar genera--_Achatinella_, _Leptachatina_, _Carelia_, and _Auriculella_. More than 300 of the two former genera have been described, every mountain valley of some of the islands having its own peculiar species. The destruction of the indigenous herbage by goats is rapidly extinguishing many forms. _Partula_, and the small land operculates, so characteristic of the other groups, are, with the exception of _Helicina_, entirely wanting. The occurrence of one of the _Merope_ group of _Helix_ (Solomon Is.) is remarkable, and there is a rich development of _Succinea_. “_Patula_,” _Microcystis_, _Tornatellina_, and the other small Polynesian land _Pulmonata_ are well represented. The presence of _Isidora_, absent from the central Pacific groups, is remarkable, and _Erinna_ is a peculiar genus belonging to the Limnaeidae.

##