204 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [May 



apparently a cross- vein between the first and second veins in the 

 photograph (not rendered in the cut) which, extending down to 

 the third vein, occurs just where the "nodus" is found in Odonata, 

 and if present would, unquestionably, remove this insect to a 

 new synthetic family between Odonata and Ephemerina. I 

 cannot judge satisfactorily whether it is an upper or an under 

 wing. The insect measured fully seven inches in expanse of wings 

 — much larger than any living species of Ephemerina." 



2. Devonian Insects. 



The only known remains of insects of this age are the wings of 

 four species found by Mr. C. F. Hartt, in the plant-bearing 

 Devonian Shales of St. John, New Brunswick. The figures now 

 given of these remains, taken from drawings made by Mr. Scudder, 

 though they represent fragmentary specimens only, are of the 

 highest interest, as the most ancient remains of insects known to 

 us, and contemporary with the oldest known land flora ; their age 

 being probably about that of the Hamilton or Chemung formations 

 of New York. 



Their geological date is unquestionable, since they are found in 

 beds richly stored with species of Devonian plants, and unconform- 

 ably underlying the oldest portion of the carboniferous series. The 

 containing beds are fully described in a paper by Mr. Matthew, 

 in the Journal of the Geological Society of London, and also in 

 Prof. Bailey's Report on the Geology of Southern New Brunswick 

 — Appendix A, on the Devonian Plant locality of Lancaster, by 

 Mr. C. F. Hartt. 



These insects, it will be observed, are of older date than the 

 carboniferous species previously noticed, and they bore the same 

 relations to the land and the water of the Devonian which the 

 former did to those of the carboniferous period. They were all 

 Neuropterous insects, and allied to the Ephemeras. It is 

 interesting, however, to observe that, like many other ancient 

 animals, they show a remarkable union of characters now found 

 in distinct orders of insects; or constitute synthetic types, as they 

 have been named. Nothing of this kind is more curious than the 

 apparent existence of a stridulating or musical apparatus like that 

 of the cricket, in an insect otherwise allied to the Neuroptera. This 

 structure also, if rightly interpreted by Mr. Scudder, introduces 

 us to the sounds of the Devonian woods, bringing before our 



