486 Herr R. Klebs on the Fauna of Amber . 
It is very difficult to give an opinion on the affinities of 
this strange little organism, except that it is a Vertebrate 
and probably a fish. It is certainly not a Placoderm, its 
resemblance to a supposed u baby Goccosteus ” being entirely 
deceptive. The appearance of the head does remind us in a 
strange way of the primitive skull of Myxine , a resemblance 
which is rendered still more suggestive by the apparent com- 
plete absence of lower jaw or of limbs or limb-girdles. But 
a Myxinoid with ossified skeleton including differentiated 
vertebral centra is, it must be owned, a rather startling idea ! 
But as it requires a name in the meanwhile, I cannot think 
of any one more appropriate than Palceospondylus Grunnii. 
LX. — The Fauna of Amber. By Herr Richard 
Klebs, of Konigsberg *. 
The above is the title of a paper read before the Entomo- 
logical Section of the 6 Versammlung deutscher Naturforscher 
und Aertzte,’ at Heidelberg, on Sept. 21, 1889. With a 
view to obtaining a large amount of material thoroughly 
suitable for working, Herr Klebs had communicated with 
Messrs. Stantien and Becker, of Konigsberg, who enjoy the 
monopoly of the amber trade, and who placed their entire stock 
at his disposal. The result has been that during the last twelve 
years several hundred thousand pieces containing specimens 
have passed through his hands, and of these he has arranged 
and catalogued about twenty-five thousand of the best-pre- 
served and most valuable. In addition to this Herr Klebs 
has arranged and catalogued other collections, including that 
formed by Kiinow, which comprises twelve thousand speci- 
mens, and has recently been purchased by the Prussian 
government. 
Thirty years ago a paper was read by Low before the same 
society on the Dipterous fauna of amber. Unfortunately it 
was but a passing glimpse which Low was able to give of 
the Tertiary forms of this order of insects, which attained so 
high a degree of development during that period ; and Low 
died before completing his work. But what little he 
then communicated excited general interest. Herr Klebs 
instances the genera Electra and ChrysothemiSj which are 
* Condensed from the ‘ Biologisches Centralblatt/ Bd. x. nos. 13 and 
14, pp. 444-448, August 15, 1890. 
