Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/336

306 and the outer lip of the shell. (Fig. 4.) From the fact that Guilding lived at St. Vincent, the creature is probably West Indian; but unfortunately no description of it has been published, and its identity cannot be ascertained. The information and figure were probably derived from Guilding's unpublished papers, of which Swainson is known to have made use. The figure, perhaps worked up from a rough sketch not intended for publication, is probably inaccurate, and much enlarged; it does not appear to represent Megalomastoma antillarum, Sowerby, or M. guildingianum, Pfeiffer, to which names "Megalomastoma suspensum" has been referred; and Mr. E.A. Smith (British Museum), who has obligingly considered the figure for the writer, thinks that it represents, possibly, Cistula lineolata, a small West Indian shell, of which the Museum acquired unnamed specimens at the sale of Guilding's collection. If this be the case, of course, our spinner belongs not to the present, but to the following family.

In some notes forwarded to 'Loudon's Magazine' in 1831, Guilding mentions a "Cyclostoma" common in the Virgin Islands, which, having given out a mucous thread, closes the operculum, and swings by the thread when hardened by the air, safe from ants and other enemies. This note was received in the year preceding that of Guilding's death, and, as he does not mention any other thread-making operculate, the writer presumes that this "Cyclostoma" is identical with the "Megalomastoma suspensum." In this case, in the circumstances just mentioned, the creature is possibly a Cistula; and we find it stated by Mr. R.J.L. Guppy that Cistula aripensis (Trinidad) frequently suspends itself by two or three glutinous threads from branches, or from the under surface of leaves. Mr. Guppy, replying to an enquiry, has had the kindness to inform the writer that this little shell, ½–¾ in. long, is the only mollusc known to him in Trinidad