DESCRIPTION of AUSTBOGHAPERINA a new GENUS 

 of ENGYSTOMATID^E from NORTH AUSTRALIA. 



By Dene B. Fky, Junior Assistant. 

 (Figs. 35-40, and Plates viii., ix.) 



In the collection of the Australian Museum are three frogs 

 •representing three species of a new genus. While in quest of 

 additional material I was permitted through the kindness of Mr. 

 George Masters, Curator of the Macleay Museum, to examine the 

 •collection of that Institution, and was fortunate enough to find 

 a bottle containing ten specimens of frogs which represent two 

 species identical with my own. This collection is from the Russell 

 River, North-east Queensland, and contains nine specimens of 

 one species (A. robusta, nrihi.), and one of another (.4. ornata, 

 mihi.). My thanks are due to Professor W. A. Haswell, M.A., 

 for his kind permission to borrow these frogs for descriptive 

 purposes, and for granting an exchange of specimens which 

 enabled me to dissect an example. 



An examination of the sacral vertebrae and sternal apparatus 

 of A. robusta proves that it belongs to the family Engystomatida?, 

 which up till the present was unrecorded from the Australian 

 continent. These frogs represent a new genus whose affinities 

 are with Chaperina, Mocquard, found in Borneo and New Guinea, 

 and for which I propose the name Auslrochaperina. 



I wish to thank Mr. Charles Hedley for his kind endeavour 

 to procure additional specimens at considerable inconvenience to 

 himself and Mr. A. R. McCulloch for his ever ready assistance. 



Austrochaperina, gen. nov. 



Pupil oval or nearly round, horizontal. Tongue oval or sub- 

 circular, entire, 1 and free behind. Vomerine teeth none. Palatine 

 ridges weak, oblique. Two transverse dermal ridges across the 

 hinder palate. The anterior is short, usually not serrated being 

 represented by a single dermal lobe, and is situated between the 



1 The tongue appears to be subject to much variation due to contraction 

 in preservation, and is thus rendered almost useless as a character. In 

 one specimen of A. gracilipes and one of A. omata, it is elongate-oval and 

 deeply notched behind, but this is, I think, due to injury. 



