10 FOSSIL INSECTS OF THE BRITISH COAT, MEASURKS. 



We shall not be f;ir wrong in assuming that the larva? of some of tin- Coal 

 Measure insects were wholly aquatic, others semi-aquatic; that the adult Blattoids 

 were indifferently aquatic or terrestrial ; the adults of the non-Blattoid types spent 

 must of their life in the vicinity of the swamp-pools in which (heir larval stages 

 Avere passed, and to which they might need to return to lay their eggs. 



Such a view seems to accord with the known facts, and will explain the special 

 character of the fauna of such deposits as those of Coseley, in Staffordshire, and 

 the brick-clays of Sparth Bottoms, Rochdale, Lancashire. These are evidently 

 true lagoon or swamp-pool deposits as contrasted with the ordinarv shales and 

 binds of the Coal Measures. 



FOOD OF COAL MEASURE INSECTS. 



The nature of the food of Coal Measure insects has been much discussed, as it 

 is so closely associated with habits. Ilandlirsch considers that the Gymnosperms 

 and Pteridosperms of the Coal Measure forests were not likely to have been 



frequented by insects in search of f I, as these plants do not prove attractive to 



living insects. Pruvost, on the other hand (1 C J1 ( .>, ? l'J'20, " La Fanne Continent ale 

 du Terrain Honiller du Nord de la France," 'Mem. Carte Gcol. France,' pp. LMili 

 207), considers that many members of the Coal Measure flora possessed in their 

 spores, or in the case of the higher plants, in their cones, a plentiful food supply for 

 insects, and he finds in the association of a l'1iijllol>l<iU at Lens with the rl<>nir<i 

 of Linopteris some support for his conclusions. 



The contemporaneous rapid development of plants and insects is also quoted 

 by Pruvost in support of his views. 



Several writers have argued that the powerful wings and consequent powers 

 of rapid flight of many of the insects are more in accordance with a predatorv and 

 carnivorous habit than witli a purely frugivorous or herbivorous one, and this 

 belief has led Lameere to write as follows (1 ( .17, ' Hull. Soc. Zool. France,' vol. xlii, 

 pp. -50 37): "Over the lake of Commentry flew magnificent Ephemeroptera and 

 splendid Odonatoptera, the carnivorous larva' of which were aquatic; doubtless 

 the Odonatoptera, when fully grown, devoured the Kphemeroplera, of which (In- 

 most fully developed types, the Megasecopterid;e, which have left no descendants, 

 must have made great slaughter among the smaller insects. 



"On the ground, in the forests, swarmed innumerable Ulattoids, which 

 frequented the detritus, and which had as enemies the ferocious and agile 

 Orthopiera, the varied counterparts of our Mantidse. These latter must have 

 attacked equally the large vegetarian Orthoptera, the counterparts of the Phasmag, 

 which probably climbed on trees, and I he bulk v Protohemiptera, which sucked (he 

 sap. Some of the Orthoptera jumped, anil there were some which by their 

 appearance recall our . \cridians, but all these beings were mute. 



