"J2 THE entomologist's RECORD. 



impossible to give even a brief resumt'. of the work wliich has been done 

 in connection with the study of fossil insects ; those interested can refer 

 to special authors such as Scudder (Fossil Butterflies, Salem, 1875 ; Four 

 Memoirs on Tertiaries, and of Fossil Insects of the United States and Canada, 

 Washington, 1878), or to the series of papers written b}^ (loss, in the 

 F/nt. Mo. Mag., vols. xv. et seq., entitled " Introductory Tapers on Fossil 

 Entomology." The following note is, however, worth recording here. 

 As is well known, the wings of the imago are carried on the mesotho- 

 racic and metathoracic segments, but the follo\ving would appear to 

 prove that insects have been known with three pairs of Avings, the third 

 pair being developed on the first or prothoracic segment. The 

 occurrence of tliese most remarkable fossil insects is recorded Ijy Mr. 

 (.'harles Brongniart in the Bulletin de la SociiHr Fheloinafhiqiie (with 

 two i)lates). These three insects " differing considerably in structure, 

 AV'ere found in tlie rich carljoniferous l)eds of ( 'ommentry, France ; two 

 of them show, besides fullj^ developed mesothoracic and metathoracic 

 wings, a pair of prothoracic wings bearing much the same relation to 

 tlie others as the mesothoracic tegmina of tropical Phasmida3 bear to 

 their metathoracic wings. They are short sub-triangular lobes, having a 

 well-defined basis which is narrower, sometimes mucli narrower, than 

 the parts behind, and from which course three or four radiating 

 nervules. Although in these individuals these parts spread laterally 

 like the wings l)ehind them, and are sometimes so broad at the base as 

 to appear at first sight more like lateral lobes of the prothorax (es})ccially 

 in an English Carljoniferous insect described l)y Woodward, which 

 Brongniart also places here), M. Brongniart believes that they were 

 movable, and could be extended backward along the body so as to 

 cover the Imse of the mesothoracic wings. As to the question which 

 naturally arises, whether these members are to be regarded as atro}>hied 

 organs, and therefore pre-suppose a progenitor e(|uipped with three 

 pairs of fully-developed and similar thoracic wings, JM. Brongniart 

 prefers to wait for further pala3ontological facts. One recalls in this 

 connection the discussion between Haase and Cholodkovsky, in tlie 

 Zoologischer Anzeiger, Nos. 235, 239 and 24i " (Fsi/che, vi., i)p. 31-32). 



(To be continued.) 



DEALERS AND STEALERS. 



By H. ROWLAND BROWN, M.A., F.E.S. 



Entomology is a science ; it is also a holjby, a pastime. Pro- 

 fessionalism, which has crept into most of our pastimes, has not let tlic 

 pastime, entomology, go scot free. The reason for this is ()l)vious. 

 The amateur, who has either no leisure or lacks the inclination to work 

 for himself, looks to the purveyors of insects Avho exist all the world 

 over to provide him with specimens for wliich he is willing enough to 

 pay. This fact is as noticeable in America as ui^on the Continent, and 

 I, for one, should be the last to throw a stone at tlie professional 

 naturalist, who has probably contributed as much to our scientific 

 knowledge as the amateur who stays at home and confines his opera- 

 tions to the neighbourhood in which he lives, or to such localities as 

 may tempt him to make holiday visits to them. The i"eal evil which 

 the entomologist objects to and views with dislike and susjDicion, is the 

 existence of the " carpet-bagger." By this term I don't mean the 



