338 Zoological Society. 



heard is immediately, in hot and sultry weather, before a thunder- 

 storm, and then only at broken intervals. This habit was particularly 

 noticed on our placing the males on a bunch of flowers in the draw- 

 ing-room, where every evening they regaled us with their short-lived 

 song, and at other periods occasionally predicted the coming storm. 



The larvae live underground upon the roots of plants, and in their 

 habits and transformations closely approximate to those of the com- 

 mon Cicada. 



The perfect insects appear early in September, and are to be found 

 imtil about February. They are extremely easily captured, the females 

 being taken when in flight by a common butterfly net, and the males 

 by going to the spot from where their voices proceed, and suddenly 

 shaking the bough, which causes them to drop to the ground, when 

 they may be picked up. 



The male has been indifi'erently figured under the name of Ci/sto- 

 soma Saundersii, in the ' Arcana Entomologica,' in which Mr. West- 

 wood mentions its aflSnity to Hemidictya, and gives good dissections. 

 His description, however, is not correct, when he characterizes the 

 insect as "pallide lutea," whereas the species is "Isete viridis." The 

 female, we believe, is not known in England. 



Ash Island, Hunter River, New South Wales, 

 Nov. 6, 1851. 



2. Description of a new species of Anomalurus, from 

 Fernando Po. By Louis Fraser, H.B.M. Vice-Consul 



FOR THE kingdom OF DaHOMEY. 



The Proceedings of this Society contain the description of a very 

 interesting new form of Rodents, discovered by myself at Fernando 

 Po, and to which the name Anomalurus Fraseri was given by Mr. 

 Waterhouse. A second species of the genus has subsequently been 

 found in Ashantee, by an enterprising collector sent out by the Direct- 

 ors of the Leyden Museum, and has been named after its discoverer, 

 by M. Temmiuck, Anomalurus Pelii. 1 have now to submit to your 

 notice a third species of the genus, which I propose to name after 

 my friend and coadjutor, John Beecroft, Esq., H.M. Consul for the 

 Bights of Benin and Biafra, also Spanish Governor of the island of 

 Fernando. Po, as a just tribute to one who has devoted upwards of 

 twenty-three years to the cause of Western Africa and its inhabitants, 

 and whose knowledge of both is unequalled. This extraordinary 

 gentleman has entered all (or nearly all) the rivers on this coast, so 

 fatal to Europeans, and after six weeks' search amongst the swamps 

 and creeks, has discovered the junction of the Benin and Niger : this 

 latter river he has navigated three or four times as high up as Kabba. 

 He also ascended Clarence Peak. 



The principal peculiarities of the three species of Anomalurus are 

 as follows : — 



Anomalurus Fraseri, Waterh. 



General hue of the upper parts brown ; the flank-membranes dusky 



