Excerpta Zoologica : — Vegetation upon Living Animals. 431 



Mag. 1833 ; Deslongchamps in Anas mollissima, Ann. des Sci, Nat. 

 1841 ; Serrurier and Rousseau in several other birds ; Johannes Miil- 

 ler andRetzius in Falco rufus and in Strix nyctea, 1842, Miill. Arch. 

 1842. 



4. In Amphibia. — Serrurier and Rousseau in Testudo Indica ; Ha- 

 nover and Stilling in salamanders and frogs. 



5. In Fish. — ^Ehrenberg observed a conferva (Tremella meteorica) 

 as a disease upon Salmo eperlanus ; Bennet a conferva upon Cyprinus 

 auratus, Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. ix. p. 66. 



6. In Insects. — Under this head come the observations of Bassi 

 and Audouin on the Muscadina of the silkworm. 



Sph^ria sinensis grows upon a caterpillar in China, and is there 

 employed as a medicine : Westwood in Annals of Nat. Hist. 1841*. 



Hygrochrosis intestinalis has been detected in the intestinal canal 

 of Blatta by Valentin (Repertorium, 1836). 



The confervoid vegetation on flies has been frequently observed 

 and described in particular by Ledermiiller, Wrisberg, SpaUanzani, 

 O. F. Miiller, Lyngbye, Gruithuissen, Cams, Goethe, Meyen, and 

 Nees von Esenbeck. 



Achlya prolifera, of the water salamander, has also been found to 

 infest the bodies of dead flies. 



7. In Mollusca. — Laurent (I'lnstitut, 1839) has observed a fungus 

 in the eggs of Limax agrestis. 



COLEOPTERA. 



The genus Byrrhus has been monographed by StefFani 

 (Tentamen MonographiaeByrrhorum, dissertatio inaug. Berol. 

 1842). The author describes thirty-five species, of which eight 

 are nevr, arranged in five genera, among which one is new. 



With regard to the geographical distribution of these in- 

 sects, it is found that they all inhabit only the northern tem- 

 perate zone, in which they are distributed as follows : — 



Number of species. Europe. America. Asia. 



Byrrhus 27 23 5 2 



Syncalypta 3 3 



Podiloptorus 1 1 



Simplocaria 2 2 



Amphicyrta 2 2 



Genera and species. .35 29 7 2 



There are four species which belong exclusively to Europe, 



five to North America, and one to Asia. 



An accurate description of the larva oi Byrrhus has recently 



been given by Erichson in his * Archiv,^ vol. i. for 1842, p. 104. 



* See a paper in Hooker's * London Journal of Botany ' on the species of 

 Sphdsria which grow on larvae and pupae. — Ed. 



