Horváth Géza (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 7. (Budapest 1909)
Soós, L.: Anatomy and systematic position of Campylaea coerulans
44 D' L. SOÓS language, 1 to which I also added a short résumé in the German language. — HESSE is of the opinion that the characteristics adduced by me, i. e. the characteristics of the radula and the jaw do not form a basis sufficiently strong for taking out C. coerutans from the subfamily Cam-pi/laeinae. As a ground for his objection HESSE refers to the fact that species possessing smooth (aulacognath) jaw, and a radula provided with aberrant teeth also occur among the Murellae. I consider that the objections given by HESSE are not sufficiently weighty to justify me in changing my point of view. The jaw of H. roerulans is not a simple oxygnath jaw, but it represents a quite peculiar type of jaw, since it consists of two smooth plates instead of one as I have described above, and therefore in this respect the H. roerulans differs from all the Heliridae known up to the present, the variations on the contrary which are to be found in the jaw of the Murellae are always less significant, because however I regard the figures given by HESSE and WIEGMANN 2 1 can not find one among them which differs even approximately to such a degree from the species with odontognath jaw as does H. coerulans from the Campylaeae, and for instance as HESSE writes the ribs of the jaw of the Murellae have a tendency to be flatter, while on the jaw of the specimens of Setubal «the 3—4 ribs were found to have become flattened and to have almost disappeared», 3 i. e. transitions are to be found between the oxygnath and the smooth (aulacognath) jaws. Still less convincing do I consider the second objection of HESSE which i^ based upon the fact that some species of Murella also have aberrant teeth. The teeth of the Murellae exhibit variability from the point of view that the teeth are shorter or at the most of the same length as the basal plate, but those of the aulacognath forms are considerabely longer. — Here again therefore we see a variability having such a systematical value as we have seen above in the case of the jaw. On the contrary II. coerulans has teeth which are not connected by transitions with those of the Carnyylaeae. The valuation of the characteristics is naturally a matter of individual conviction, but I am of opinion that the characteristics adduced above are in any case quite sufficient to justify the separation of Hazai/d from Cumjn/laeu. It is true, as I have also emphasised, that the construction of 1 A Campylaea ccerulans anatómiája és rendszertani helye. (Állattani Közlemények, VII, 1908, p. 21—25.) - R OSSMÄSSLER'S Iconographie, N. F. XIV. Bd., 1908. 3 Ibid., p. 31.
