Page:VCH Buckinghamshire 1.djvu/113

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ZOOLOGY

MOLLUSCS

Less appears known concerning the molluscan fauna of Buckinghamshire than of almost any other southern county.

Only one list seems ever to have been published (W. D. Roebuck: Science Gossip, 1883, p. 173), and through this and information supplied by Mr. A. Leicester we are made acquainted with the occurrence of 65 species out of the 139 known to inhabit the British Islands. The soil and physical features of the county however are such that many more forms of mollusca must abound there, and need only to be sought for. Under these circumstances the names of 30 other species, marked with an *, have been added, since they are common and widely distributed forms, and are present in adjacent counties.

Of those that have been met with the most interesting are the Roman snail (Helix pomatia) and the pretty little Acanthinula lamellata. The former is a very local species in England, having its headquarters on the chalk downs of Surrey, where it existed before the Romans came over. The other, which is an essentially northern form, had not until quite lately been found living further south than mid-Staffordshire, though in pleistocene times its range extended to the shores of the North Sea and the Channel.

In the exploration of a pile-dwelling of Romano-British date at Hedow, in 1895, the following species were found: Helix aspersa, H. nemoralis, Succinea putris, Limnæa palustris (?), Planorbis corneus, P. marginatus and Cyclas sp.? (Records of Bucks, vii. 547).

A. GASTROPODA

I. PULMONATA

a. Stylommatophora

Limax maximumus, Linn.
—— flavus, Linn.
—— arborum, Bouch. -Chant.*
Agriolimax agrestis (Linn.)
—— lævis (Müll.)*
Amalia strwerbii (Fr.)*
—— gagates (Drap.)*
Vitrina pellucida (Müll.)
Vitrea crystallina (Müll.)*
—— alllaria (Miler)*
—— glabra (Brit. Auct.)*
—— cellarla (Müll.) Two shells were found within a stone coffin under the floor of Turville Church (Records of Bucks, viii. 288)
Vitrea nitidula (Drap.)
—— pura (Aid.)*
—— radiatula (Aid.)*
—— nitida (Mull.)*
—— fulva (Mttll.)
Arion ater (Linn.)
—— hortensis, Fér.
—— circumscriptus, John.
—— subfuscus (Drap.)*
Punctum pymæum (Drap.)
Pyramidula rotundata (Müll.)
Hellicella virgata (Da C.)*
—— itala (Linn.)*
—— caperata (Mont.)
—— cantiana (Mont.)*
Hygromta fusca (Mont.) Fawley Woods
—— granulata (Aid.)*
—— hispida (Linn.)

69