256 ICONOGRAPHIE DES COLEOPTERES. — FROG IN AMBER. 



parison with those published by M. Guerin, and there are 

 also other faults requiring notice. A monograph, according 

 to my views, should give the derivation of the new generic 

 names adopted by the monographer ; the authors have omit- 

 ted to give them. Some are easy enough to guess at ; others 

 are very recondite and obscure, and require some explanation. 

 Some again exhibit a sad want of taste and euphony. What 

 is the signification of Temina, and the meaning of the absurd 

 term of Nascio t Acherusia, Asthrceus, Bulls and Bubastes 

 require their derivatives to be mentioned. It is high time 

 that this work should be brought to a close ; if not, subscrib- 

 ers will probably withdraw their names, and not submit to 

 receive a fasciculus in which only thirteen species are figured 

 instead of at least thirty, as there ought to be. We recom- 

 mend the attention of the authors to the latinity, as absolutely 

 necessary. The typograpical errors are numerous, and ought 

 to be corrected. It is to be hoped that the index will be more 

 perfect than that of the Cetoniada published by M.M. Gory 

 and Percheron. A word respecting the plates. The figures 

 are engraved under the superintendence of Dumesnil, and cer- 

 tainly do him credit ; the colours are too vivid, many of the 

 species are more like peacocks than the insect originals ; and 

 the quantity of gum used to set off the colouring comes off, 

 and damages the appearance of the plates. We have yet 

 another fault to find ; the Latin descriptions of the species 

 are too concise, and the French descriptions which follow are 

 little more than a mere copy of the former ; the whole are so 

 meagre and scanty that it is impossible to make out any spe- 

 cies with certainty ; the characteristic distinctions are gene- 

 rally omitted. So much for the Iconographie, a work which 

 has only one recommendation, namely, Dusmesnil's engrav- 

 ings. — F. W. Hope. 



New species of frog in yellow amber. — Baron Bulow-Rieth 

 of Stettin, is in possession of a very curious specimen of a 

 frog, imbedded in yellow amber, which appears to be the on- 

 ly known instance of an antediluvian amphibian being hand- 

 * ed down to our time with its external characters. That this 

 individual has not been imbedded in the amber by artificial 

 means, appears evident from its differing specifically from all 

 living frogs. Mr. Schmidt, of Stettin, considers it to belong 

 to the true Ranee of the moderns, and that it is nearly allied 

 to Rana temporaria, Linn., which it resembles in the colour 

 of the .skin and markings on the legs, but essentially differs 

 from that species in the thinness and delicacy of the toes, 

 which taper almost to a point. — W. Weissenborn. — Weimar 



