Annates des Sciences Naturclles. 577 



the Parisian Entomologists appears to have been strongly excited, 

 and M. Desmarest in particular applied himself to the investigation 

 of this curious subject with a success that rewarded his exertions, 

 by the certainty that the insect in question was in fact the female 

 of Drilus flavescens. The details of his enquiries and experiments 

 form a very interesting article ; and our knowledge of this insect 

 is rendered yet more complete by a subsequent memoir from M. 

 Audouin on its anatomy, as a supplement to which he describes 

 from the cabinet of M. Dejean two new species of this genus, D. 

 aler, which is black throughout, and D. fulvicoUis, black, with 

 the thorax, antennas, and feet fulvous. By these investigations, the 

 history of this insect, whose female even was previously unknown, 

 is now rendered more complete than that of perhaps any other of 

 the Coleoptera. A notice from the latter gentleman, also points 

 out the existence of an additional species of Achlysia to that de- 

 scribed and figured in the Zoological Journal, (p. 122, and pi. iv. 

 fif. 2 — 7.) His new species he terms A. Mannerheimi, white, 

 with four rows of red spots on the back. A new genus of Ara- 

 neidae, Myrmecium, from Rio Janeiro, which forms the passage 

 from the Dolomedes to the Eresi, is described by M. Latreille ; 

 and a new Coccus, C. Zew Mays, by Leon Dufour. A description 

 and figures of the Fasciola Lucii, by M. Jurine, and the transla- 

 tion of Mr. Bauer's admirable Croonian Lecture on the Vibrio 

 Tritici, illustrated with copies of his drawings, also merit particular 

 attention. 



In the vertebrated department of Zoology, next in importance to 

 the researches of MM. Prevost and Dumas mentioned above, is 

 an article from the pen of Geoffroy St. Hilaire, on the composi- 

 tion of the Cranium, which he deduces from the union of seven 

 vertebras, forming a continuation of the rachisof the spine ; regard- 

 ing the lower jaw as an additional unattached vertebra. This article 

 is obviously incapable of being condensed into the small compass 

 which we could allot to it ; neither can we do more than refer to 

 the papers by M. Majendie, on the functions of several of the 

 nerves, particularly of the olfactory, which he appears to have 

 proved to be by no means essential to the sense of smell. The 

 title of the Geological notice, by M. Huot, " on the pretended 



