Mr. J. Wood-Ma80ii im the Genus Dcidamia. 131 



in the ^luseum is a vciy poor one ; and the lianidac from all 

 parts of India must be assiduously collected before sound 

 results can be obtained. Let us hope that an urgent ajjpcal 

 for frogs from all parts of India [and Ceylon, W. F.] will be 

 liberally responded to by local naturalists and collectors, with- 

 out which aid the subject must long remain in its present un- 

 satisfactory' state. Each contributor should not send merely 

 the most conspicuous frogs from his neighbom-hood, but all 

 the species and varieties he can ])rocure." 



As an illustration of the liability to add to and perpetuate 

 the confusion connected with some of the frogs and other 

 reptiles, I may refer to a rare Ceylon frog found first on 

 Adam's Peak several years ago by Dr. Schmarda, Professor 

 of Zoology in the University of Prague. On a fly-sheet after 

 page 21 of the second part of Dr. Kelaart's * Prodromus of the 

 Faunae of Ceylon,' published in 1853, this frog is very briefly 

 described by the late Dr. Kelaart under the following name, 

 '^Poli/pedafes (?) Schmarda,n.s. nobis" — i\\Q^^ Schmarda" being 

 no doubt a slip of the pen for ^^Schmardana^" under which 

 latter name, and under the genus Ijcalus, Gunther refers to this 

 then doubtful frog in his ' Indian Reptiles,' p. 433. Theobald, 

 in his Catalogue referred to, p. 85, gives this frog as follows: — 

 ^'■Polypedates fimaragdinus^ Kelaart; Ceylon. Eyebrows armed 

 with spines. Limbs studded with tubercular shai-p-pointed 

 spines. A very peculiar species, and ])robably a distinct 

 generic fonn." Jerdon, in the paper referred to, pp. 83, 84, 

 and Anderson, in his list of accessions to the collection of 

 reptiles in the Indian Museum since 1865, refer distinctly to 

 an Indian frog described by Blyth in footnote to p. 48 of 

 Appendix to Kelaart's ' Prod. Faun. Zeyl.' as the Poh/pedates 

 smaragdinus, found on the Khasi hills. The specific name 

 here mea.ns emeraJd-green ; and Mr. Theobald's P. smaragdinus 

 ought to have been P. Schmardayia. On page 85 of the 

 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History ' for January 1872, 

 containing " Descriptions of some Ceylonese Reptiles and 

 Batrachians" by Dr. Gunther, this frog is finally, and I suppose 

 properly, named, though not yet described, as Ixahis Schmar- 

 darms (Kelaart). 



XVII. — On the Genus Deidamia, v. W.-S. By James 

 Wood-Mason, of Queen's College, Oxford. 



At the last meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, held on 

 the 5th of August last, I drew attention to the fact that a 

 Crustacean precisely similar in general structure to several 



9* 



