THE BANDED SNAILS - FAMILY ORTHALICIDAE. Shell as in Bulimus, thin, without a pit; lip thin, simple; columella straight; jaw pointed in front, with oblique shingling side plates. Radula of fine cusped teeth in V-shaped rows. A family of tree snails that secrete a thick, dry epiphragm and hiber nate during the dry season.
Habitat.— Tropical America.
Genus ORTHALICUS, Beck Characters of the family.
The Waved Orthalicus (0. undata, Brug.) is strikingly, but irregularly, banded both ways with chocolate on a pale ground. It grows noticeably larger on the mainland than on adjacent islands. Length, 2 inches.
Habitat.— Central America.
0. zebra, Mull., is distinguished from its close relative by chestnut zigzag lines of more distinct pattern.
The tropical summer is the period of "xstivation" for land mollusks; they become inactive, burying themselves deeply in the ground or attaching themselves to the under sides of rocks, or to tree trunks, or stalks of grass. The beautifully painted Orthalicus of South America disappears underground for this season. When the rains come they joyfully climb to the highest treetops. Tropical countries that throng with land mollusks in the rainy season, seem quite as barren of life in midsummer as colder regions do in midwinter, when mollusks are hibernating.
Sub-Genus LIGUUS Under this division is assembled a group of species and varieties with shells so graceful and beautiful that they charm everyone. The shapely, slender spire is wound with narrow 273 The Banded Snails stripes, distinct, various and harmonious in colour. There are
often broad wavy bands crossing the whorls.
The Stripped Liguus (0. fasciata, Mull.) is sometimes pure white. Many are decorated only with pale green, spiral, pin stripes. Here is a white one wound with pink, lavender, olive, yellow and black, arranged in a striking system of lines of varying widths. Soft tints, hard to define, such as one sees in Japanese prints, abound on the polished coils of these delicate shells. Few tropical sea shells are half so attractive. To see them carried on the backs of tree snails along the limbs and among the leaves and flowers of tropical plants is worth a journey around the world.
In winter they hibernate by attaching their apertures strongly to the bark of the tree, by means of a viscid, opaque substance like glue. In tearing off a specimen, the bark or the shell will give way before this cement does. Sometimes the individual retires into its shell and secretes a thin, pearly door as a protection. In this comatose state many are devoured by tree crabs. The slenderer, 0. virginica, Montf., of Haiti, shares with its gay com panions the danger of being seized by the bloodthirsty Glandina if it chances to drop to the ground. Length, t to 2i inches.
Habitat.— West Indies and Florida.
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