Field meeting at the White Downs, Surrey July 1962

White Downs is a part of the chalk escarpment facing south midway between Dorking and Shere. The party of about a dozen members and friends first made for a small overgrown chalkpit where such species as Marpessa laminata, Clausilia rolphii, C. bidentata, Oxychilus cellarius, and 0. helveticus were found. On the nearby open ground (part of a firing range now being invaded by scrub containing Helix pomatia locally) members found Helicella caperata, H. itala, H. virgata and Pomatias elegans and on kneeling (or lying) down and attacking the turf with penknives, brought forth Vallonia costata, Vertigo pygmaea, Pupilla muscorum and Caeciliodes acicula. Thence to a beech copse for Helicigona lapicida, Ena obscura, Retinella pura and, for those who took a bundle of leaves home, Puneturn pygmaeum, and Acanthinula aculeata

Off the chalk, a small pond at the foot of the hill yielded only PIanorbis albus, hymnaea peregra and Pisidium sp. A marshy copse added Azeca goodalli (one shell), Euconulus fulvus and Arianta arbustorum. Altogether 45 species were noted.

A few enthusiasts paid a flying visit after tea to the well-known 'crater' at Box Hill. Despite failing light 22 species were noted including Azeca goodalli (in abundance), and, by the sharp-eyed, Acme fusca, but the leader had to wait till his Lepidopterist wife at home produced it from the bag of moss that had been hastily taken in despair.