The group of the Erycinides belongs essentially to tropical America. The beforementioned Nemeobius Lucina is the only European representative of this numerous and polymorphous group. Besides this, there exist some few Asiatic members of this family, very aberrant in their type, scarcely known and insufficiently examined, so that possibly they may belong somewhere else. In America the tropical genera Nymphidia and Lemonias, extend beyond the Cancer on the Atlantic side; but on the Pacific side reappears the European genus Nemeobius, extending into the Tropics, and seems to find here its very centre.
Description of New Species of Land Shells.
BY W. NEWCOMB, M.D.
Helix Blakeana, Newc.
Hel. testa unicolor flavido-alba, rotundato, semi-globosa, nitida, translucida; umbilico amplo, profundo et parum obtecto; apice obtuso; anfractibus sex, convexis, tribus superioribus sub-planis, reliquiis rapide accrescentibus, ultimo inflato; sutura bene impressa; aperturâ rotundato-lunare; peristomate tenue, ex panso-reflexo cum columellâ sub-late dilatatâ, non adnatâ.
Alt. ·7 pol., Diam maj. 1·1 pol., min. 1· pol.
Hab. Insula Niphon—Japan, (teste Blake).
Shell uniformly yellowish white, rounded, half globular, shining, translucent; umbilicus large, deep and slightly covered; apex obtuse; whorls six, convex, the three first nearly on the same plane, the balance rapidly increasing, the last swollen; suture well marked; aperture roundly lunar; lip thin, flatly reflected, at the columella broadly dilated but not adherent.
Note.—In general form and color, this species makes a nearer approach to H. candida, Moricand, than to any species with which I am acquainted. It varies in the less elevation, in the form of the spire, and in some other respects. Professor Blake had remarkable facilities for collecting in Japan, but unfortunately the mice proved so destructive to his terrestrial shells, as to leave him but few specimens as the result of his labor.