ZOOLOGY MOLLUSCS With the exception of the limestone patches in the extreme north and south of the county, the soil of Staffordshire is not favourable to molluscan life, consequently the greater number of the land shells are recorded from those calcareous districts. The larger Helices cannot be called abundant in any part of the county, and are most numerous along roadsides and in gardens, suggesting their comparatively late incursion into the area. The aquatic species on the other hand are abundant, and some forms such as Dreissensia appear to be extending their range. Altogether ninety-three species have been recorded for the county, exclusive of the following, due mostly to errors of identification, viz. Pupa seca/e, Glausilia biplicata, Succlnea oblonga, Amphipeplea glutinosa, Planorbis hneatus, Viiiipara contecta and Pisidium mtidum, as well as Helicella virgafa and H. cantiana ; the two last are however represented by colonies introduced, the former at Wren's Nest in 1887 and the latter at Sedgley in 1886. An introduction from abroad of some note is Physa beterostropha, Say, an American species that has recently been taken in a millpond fed by the Tame at Wood Green, Wednesbury. The whole assemblage is of the average British facies, with the interesting addition of Acanthinula lamellata, which till lately was thought to attain its southernmost present day range in this county, though formerly it lived quite down in the south of England ; recently however it has been ascertained that it occurs close to Reading. The principal records are those of Robert Garner, 1 Edwin Brown, 3 J. R. B. Masefield 3 and G. Sherriff Tye. 4 A. GASTROPODA I. PULMONATA Limax maximus, Linn. flavus. Linn. Cheadle ; Stone ; Stafford a. STYLOMMATOPHORA _ arhorum ^ Bouch.-Chant. Testacella ha/iotidea, Drap. Hanchurch near Agriollmax agrestis (Linn.) Trentham - Itevit (Mull.) 1 Natural History of the County of Stafford ( 1 844). 2 In Sir O. Moseley's Naturat History of Tutbury (1863). 3 ' The Land and Freshwater Mollusca of North Staffordshire,' Trans. North Sta/s field Club, vol. xxxvi. (1902). 4 'Mollusca of Birmingham and neighbourhood, Journ. Conch. (1874), i. 57, 68. 77
