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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



of having possessed a musical or stridulating apparatus, 

 similar to that of modern crickets, thus combining a 

 feature found in the Orthoptera with the wing 

 venation and other characteristics of the Neuroptera ; 

 another {Ifouiot/nitis fossilis) unites peculiarities now 

 found in the May flies and dragon flies ; while a third 

 (Platcphemcra an/iqi/a), which must have been a 

 gigantic sort of Ephemera or May fly, measuring five 

 inches in expanse of wing, also exhibits similar 

 synthetic features. Although these are the oldest 

 insect remains yet discovered, there is of course no 

 sound reason why, in the older rocks, such remains 

 may not in future be found older than these Devonian 

 insects just mentioned. In the rocks of the suc- 

 ceeding carboniferous period the Neuroptera are 

 represented by the remains of several species of 

 Termites or white ants, insects which, despite their 

 name, have nothing in common with the true ants, 

 but possess a much nearer relationship to the cock- 

 roaches, with which insects they were more closely 

 allied in former times than now. Some very large 

 species of May flies, one measuring seven inches in 

 expanse of wing, have also been found in the coal 

 formations of America. An interesting insect from 

 an ironstone pit of Permian age at Schwarzenbach in 

 Germany has been described by Dr. Dohrn, under the 

 name of Eugereon Bockingi, which that naturalist 

 considers as not being referable to any existing Order, 

 combining as it does characters of the Neuroptera 

 and Hemiptera, thus forming one of the most in- 

 teresting of the old synthetic type of insects. During 

 the Mesozoic period dragon flies evidently became very 

 plentiful. First occurring in the Lower Lias marls 

 of Schambelen, Switzerland, a beautiful and large 

 specimen from which place (ALscJuia Hogcni) is 

 described and figured by Professor Heer, they are 

 found in great plenty in the several Oolitic formations, 

 particularly in the Solenhofen slate of Bavaria, where 

 some gigantic species measure eight inches jn expanse 

 of wing, and four inches in length of body ; while in 

 the dried-up Miocene lake of Giningen, in Switzerland, 

 they occur abundantly both in the larval and mature 

 state. Other families of Neuroptera, including those 

 beautiful and delicate lace-winged flies, the Hemero- 

 biidte, the "snake flies," or Raphidiidie, the Myr- 

 melons, etc. etc., make their first appearance in the 

 Mesozoic period and continue to be found in Tertiary 

 deposits up to the present time. 



Next in antiquity to the Neuroptera come the 

 Orders Orthoptera, Hemiptera, and Coleoplera, all 

 of which date back to Carboniferous times. We will 

 now very briefly trace the geological history of each 

 of these Orders separately. 



(1.) Orthoptera. By far the most numerous, and 

 probably the oldest remains of this Order belong to 

 the Blattidae or cockroach family, above fifty species 

 of which have been obtained from the coal beds on 

 both sides of the Atlantic. The coal formations have 

 also yielded remains of orthopterous insects allied to 



the crickets, grasshoppers, and mantids, a fine speci- 

 men resembling the latter (Lithomantis) having been 

 discovered in Scotland, while on the continent a 

 species of Phasma has also been found in the coal 

 measures. In the Mesozoic formations, cockroaches, 

 locusts, grasshoppers, and crickets, occur in plenty ; 

 and in the Eocene rocks of the Isle of Wight, 

 Gryllotalpa, or the mole cricket, makes its appear- 

 ance, since which time it and the' others have con- 

 tinued to the present day. 



(2.) Hemiptera. The two oldest representatives of 

 this Order come from the coal measures of Saarbruck, 

 and belong to the genus Fulgorina. Two other 

 species of the same genus also occur in the Permian 

 rocks of the continent. In the Liassic and Oolitic 

 rocks the genera Cicada, Cimex, Nepa, Notonecta, 

 etc., and several of the different forms of land and 

 water bugs, occur abundantly, and these continue 

 through Kainozoic times, some of the water bugs 

 from the Upper Miocene of Oeningen being very 

 large in size. Aphides also come in towards the 

 close of the Secondary period. 



(3.) Coleoptera. Beetles also date back to Carbon- 

 iferous times. Two fossils are extant of that age ; 

 one, a species allied to Curculio, from the ironstone of 

 Coalbrook Dale, Shropshire, and the other a Troxites, 

 from the coal measures of Saarbruck. Coming to 

 Mesozoic times, the Trias furnishes us with three 

 species from the Keuper of Vadutz, while from the 

 Trias of North America we have, on the testimony 

 of Mr. Scudder, a fossil coleopterous larva. In the 

 Rhcetic beds of England and Sweden remains of 

 Coleoptera occur in greater numbers, while in the 

 Lower Lias marls of Schambelen, Switzerland, which 

 have furnished such a rich harvest of fossil insects 

 to the researches of Professor Heer, by far the greater 

 proportion of such insects belong to the Coleoptera, 

 a fact due doubtless in some measure to the favourable 

 conditions for preservation afforded by the hard wing- 

 cases of beetles. These fossil Coleoptera include 

 wood beetles — the Buprestidrc and Elateridse occurring 

 in great numbers — leaf-eating beetles, such as the 

 Chrysomelidse, etc., carnivorous beetles, including 

 small Carabidse and Telephoridre, and water beetles, 

 including small Gyrinidse and Hydrophilidae. Some 

 of these remains are also specially interesting on 

 account of the light they throw upon the existence of 

 other forms of life at the time. For example, several 

 genera of beetles are found whose representatives now- 

 feed on fungi and mosses, thus indicating the existence 

 of fungi and mosses at that time in the neighbourhood, 

 although these have not yet been found in the same 

 formation. The occurrence of a dung beetle also 

 furnishes, according to Professor Heer, indications of 

 the existence of small mammalia, although no 

 such remains have as yet been found. In the 

 Upper Oolitic formations, comprising the Purbecks 

 of England, and the Solenhofen slate of Bavaria, the 

 same families of beetles also occur, along with some 



