Revision of the Melaniidae of British Guyana and Surinam

Perhaps the most serious difficulty which the present writer experienced in naming specimens of Melaniidae from the Guianas is the almost total lack of literature. The monograph of BROT (1874) and a paper by VERNHOUT (1914) being almost all that is available for reference. British Guiana in particular has long been neglected conchologically, the brothers SCHOMBURGK being amongst the few explorers who paid any attention to the mollusca. The shells collected by RICHARD SCHOMBURGK, who travelled in Guiana between the years 1840 and 1844, were reported upon by TROSCHEL (1848) in the third volume of SCHOMBURGK’s ‘Reisen in Britisch Guiana’. HENRI DROUET (1852) gave an account of the Melaniidae found in French Guiana, but his work is now like that of BROT and TROSCHEL a century old!