80 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Feb., 'l/ 



Advances in Knowledge of Fossil Insects. 



Our knowledge of the occurrence and distribution of insects in 

 previous ages of the earth's history has been notably increased by a 

 recent paper by Mr. R. J. Tillyard, Science Research Scholar in the 

 University of Sydney, on "Mesozoic and Tertiary Insects of Queens- 

 land and New South Wales." (Queensland Ceol. Surv. Publ. No. 253, 

 Brisbane, 1916.) It deals with material collected during a number of 

 years at Denmark Hill at Ipswich, Goodna near Ipswich, and St. 

 Peter's, near Sydney, all in New South Wales and at Duaringa, 

 Queensland. The Denmark Hill beds are referred to the Triassic, the 

 St. Peter's claypits to the Jurassic, the Duaringa and Goodna deposits 

 are of tertiary age, according to an account of the stratigraphical 

 features by Mr. B. Dunstan, Chief Government Geologist, preceding 

 Mr. Tillyard's descriptions. 



The Denmark Hill beds, which have been known since 1890 to con- 

 tain fossil insects, have yielded the most interesting of the specimens 

 discussed in this memoir. They represent eight orders (Blattoidea, 

 Protorthoptera, Coleoptera, Odonata, Mecoptera, Lepidoptera, Proto- 

 hemiptera, Hemiptera), thirteen genera and twenty-two species, of 

 which ten genera and seventeen species are new. The chief general re- 

 sults are thus stated by Mr. Tillyard : 



"i. Certain insect types characteristic of the late Palaeozoic in the 

 Northern Hemisphere, and not found in the Mesozoic, are now shown 

 to have had fairly close relatives in the Trias of Australia. Such types 

 include Austromylacritcs [Blattoidea], Mesorthoptcron and Mesoman- 

 tidion [both Protorthoptera]. 



2. The first known appearance of a true dragon fly [Mcsofihlcbia, n. 

 gen.], with nodus and pterostigma, can now be assigned to the Trias, 

 instead of the Lias. It was probably an Anisopterid. 



3. A Panorpid (Mecoptera \Mcsochorista n. gen.]) scarcely dif- 

 fering from a form [Tacniochorista] still alive in Southern Queens- 

 land, existed in the Australian Trias. This group has already been 

 recorded from the Lias in the Northern Hemisphere. 



4. A Lepidopterous insect, a fairly large moth [Dunstania n. gen.] 

 is present in the Australian Trias. As the Lepidoptera have not until 

 now been traced back beyond the upper Jurassic, this discovery is of 

 great importance. Also, as this insect existed in a period long before 

 that generally agreed upon when flowering plants first appeared 



(Lower Cretaceous), it is an interesting question as to what it fed 

 upon and what its mouth parts were like. [A list of the fossil flora as- 

 sociated with the remains of the insects at Denmark Llill is given by 

 Mr. Dunstan, p. 6, and consists of 13 species of ferns, 2 of cycads, 

 I of Equisetales and 5 of conifers.] 



5. A true Hemipterid (allied to the recent Jassidae) existed side by 

 side with a large insect probably related to Huucrcon, and hence ref- 

 erable to the Protohemiptera. Jassidae are known from the Lias of 



