Zoological Illustrations Series II/Plate 96
CARACOLLA acutissima.
Two-toothed Disk-Snail.
CARACOLLA acutissima,
Two-Toothed Disk Snail.
Class Mollusca. Order Phytophages. Swains.
Generic (?) Character.
Animal with four tentaculæ, the lower pair very short; Shell discoid, greatly depressed; the spire but slightly raised above the body whorl; aperture large, oblique, angulated; the lower portion generally dentated; the margin thickened and reflected.
Specific Character.
Shell imperforate, with the spiral whorls flattened obliquely, the body whorl acutely carinated, and convex beneath: outer lip reflected; with from 1 to 2 tuberculated teeth near the extremity.
Caracolla acutissima. Lam. Syst. 6. p. 2. p. 95. Knorr. vol. 4 pl. 5. f. 2. 3.
Encycl. Meth. pl. 462. f. 1. a. b.?
Helicodonta. A. de Fèrrusac. pl. 58. f. 2.
Helix caracolla. Guerin. Iconog. du Règ. Anim. Mol. pl. 6. f. 1.
It is seldom we can deliniate more than the covering of testacious animals, particularly where the species are natives of tropical countries. In the present instance we owe this power to the singular fact of this snail having survived a voyage from Jamaica, and peered out upon an English sun. It is now near forty years ago since an intelligent correspondent of our honoured father sent him from Jamaica, a box of land shells: they were carefully packed in moist decayed wood, and enclosed the living animals. The season was summer and the voyage short; the box was immediately opened, and by placing the shells in luke-warm water, the animals of every one slowly emerged from their shells. Of their ultimate fate we know not: but that celebrated artist and entomologist, the late Mr. Lewin, then a guest in the house, executed highly finished drawings upon vellum of each species; and from one of these our present figures are faithfully copied. At the request of our friend Dr. Leach, a copy was also made by some one and transmitted to Baron de Fèrussac, for his great work upon Land shell, where it will be found engraved at pl. 58. fig. 2. M. Guerin has re-copied this latter figure, but as both are inaccurate, without any fault of these gentlemen, (who never saw the original drawing of Lewin) we have now represented it correctly.