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The Door Shells

Genus CLAUSILIA, Drap.

Shell slenderly fusiform, usually sinistral, aperture earshaped, guarded by wall ridges, and closed by a shelly plate attached to the columella by an elastic foot. It is for the exclusion of small beetles and other insects. A genus of seven hundred species, all terrestrial, with shells mostly turned to the left.

The Three-Toothed Door Shell, (C. tridens, Chemn.), slim, brown, with a flaring, three-toothed, white lip, has its six whorls longitudinally grooved, and its tip rounded to a blunt point. Length, 1 1/2 inches.

Habitat.--West Indies.