332 Zoology of Central Africa. 



Art. III. Zur Naturgeschichte, fyc. On the Natural History of 

 the Genus Calandra, with the Description of a new Species, Ca- 

 landra Sommeri. By Dr. Hermann Burmeister. 4to, c l\ pages, 

 with one coloured plate. Berlin, 1837. 



The writings of Dr. Burmeister, as a first-rate entomolo- 

 gist, are already so well known in this country from his 

 Handbuch der Entomologie, translated by Mr. Shuckard, and 

 by his admirable memoir upon the anatomy of the larva of 

 Calosoma sycophanta, published in the Transactions of the 

 Entomological Society, that a new work from his pen and 

 pencil will be welcomed by entomologists. The genus Ca- 

 landra is the subject of this new memoir ; and, when it is 

 remembered that those destructive insects the corn weevil 

 (Cal. palmarum), the rice weevil (Cal. oryzas), the palm 

 weevil (Cal. palmarum), and the tamarind weevil (Cal.Tama- 

 randi Christy in Trans. Ent. Soc), are all referable to this 

 genus, it may be well presumed that the subject will lose 

 none of its interest in the hands of Dr. Burmeister, who has 

 entered very fully into the natural history and other pe- 

 culiarities of the genus, accompanied by several interesting 

 tables, exhibiting the geographical range of the different 

 species, on a plan which, if applied to other large groups, 

 would furnish some admirable results in this too much neg- 

 lected part of the science. 



The new species of Calandra described by Dr. Burmeister 

 resides in the trunks of Encephalarctus Altensteinii, at the 

 Cape of Good Hope, and is thus characterised : — Calandra 

 Sommeri : nigra, pronotovittato ; elytris punctato-striatis ; stria 

 secunda et tertia puncto post medium luteo-fusco. Long. 

 lin. 10. 



This insect, brought from the Cape by M. Thorey (who 

 has large collections of insects for sale at Hamburg), is 

 described by Dr. Burmeister in all its states. The larva is 

 remarkable for having the extremity of the body terminated 

 by a furcate appendage. The internal anatomy of the larva 

 is figured with great care ; highly magnified representations 

 of the nervous system, and of the digestive organs, being given 

 in the plate. 



SHORT MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 



ZOOLOGY of Central Africa. — Our readers will be gratified 

 to hear that the splendid collection of objects, illustrative of the 

 zoology of Central Africa, formed during the progress of the 

 late exploring expedition, has just arrived in this country, 



