74 MR. WESTWOOD ON A NEW SPECIES OF PAUSSTJS 



characters among Murcenidce. And fourthly, the true Fish-scales, 

 together with the lateral line extending from the gill to the ex- 

 tremity of the tail, are characters peculiar to Fishes, and not to 

 be found among Amphibian Reptiles. Assuming then that Lepi- 

 dosiren is unquestionably a Fish, and not either a Reptile or an 

 osculant between Fishes and Reptiles, Mr. Newman regards it as 

 completely obliterating the boundary set up by Cuvier between 

 the two great subclasses of Fishes, the Osseous and the Cartilagi- 

 nous. In support of this opinion he quotes several passages from 

 Prof. Owen's paper, and concludes by stating his conviction that 

 it is "equally impossible to place it in either the Cartilaginous or 

 Osseous series ; and we are compelled either to establish an inter- 

 mediate series, consisting of but three species or perhaps genera, 

 or to break up those great divisions, which have received the 

 almost universal approbation of naturalists. The first course 

 seems most undesirable in an age in which we are exerting our- 

 selves to find associates and allies for every abnormal form, how- 

 ever apparently isolated. The alternative, the mingling of carti- 

 laginous and osseous fishes, seems inevitable." 



Description of a New Species of Paussus from Central "Western 

 Africa. By J. O. Westwood, Esq., F.L.S. &c. 



[Bead February 19th, 1856.] 



During the twenty-six years which have elapsed since the publi- 

 cation of my first Monograph on the family Paussidce in the 16th 

 volume of the " Transactions of the Linnean Society," our know- 

 ledge of the species of this singular group has increased in a 

 remarkable manner, as we are now acquainted with nearly a 

 hundred well-defined species. Indeed, even since the appearance 

 of the synopsis of the family which I published in the 19th volume 

 of the " Transactions" in 1841, the number (which then amounted 

 to 47) has been doubled. A considerable number of these new 

 species were described and figured in the 2nd volume of my "Arcana 

 Entomologica " (1845), together with coloured figures of all the 

 previously described species. Seventeen new species were described 

 by me in the "Proceedings" of the Linnean Society, June 19, 

 1849. A new species from Tangier (subsequently found also in 

 Spain) was described by M. Leon Fairmaire in the " Annales " of 

 the French Entomological Society for 1852. Six additional spe- 

 cies with a fresh general synopsis (recording eighty-five species) 



