THE 



^SS^^ VOLUME XY. "^^//^ 



INTEODUCTOEY PAPEES ON FOSSIL ENTOMOLOaY. 

 BY H. GOSS, F.L.S., F.G.S. 



No. 1. 



'[On the importance of an acquaintance toith the suhject : its hearing 

 on the question of the evolution of insects, and the evidence it affords of 

 the antiquity of their familt/ fi/pes.^ 



Altliougli Entomology has attracted a larger number of workers 

 than any other branch of Zoology, the fossil remains of the Insecta, 

 and their affinities with existing genera and species of that class of 

 the animal kingdom had, until a comparatively recent date, received 

 scarcely any attention. 



This is somewhat remarkable, because since the time of Cuvier, 

 not only have the remains of the Vertehrata, the Mollusca, and the 

 Crustacea, been carefully studied, both on the continent and in this 

 country, but even the lowest forms* of animal life have not been ne- 

 glected by Palaeontologists. 



It cannot, however, be denied that of the Arthropoda the Insecta 

 are at least as interesting as the Crustacea ; but although fossil insects 

 were first alluded to as long ago as 1700, in Scheuchzers's " Herbarium 

 Diluvianum," and in several later works by Sendelius, Schroter, and 

 others, it was not until 1829, when M. Marcel de Serresf published 

 an important work on the Fossil Invertebrates of the South of France, 

 that they appear to have received serious attention. Ten years later, 

 M. Brulle,;|; in an inaugural address to the Faculte des Sciences de 

 Paris, remarked on the importance of an acquaintance with fossil 

 insects. 



More recently. Professor Oswald Heer, of Zurich, most aptly 

 styled by Massalongo "the Cuvier § of Fossil Entomology," has|| 



* Such as Foraminifera, Radiolaria, and other classes belonging to the Protozoa. 



t Geognosie des Terrains tertiaires, (fee, Paris, 1829. 



t Sur le gisement des Insectes fossiles, et sur les secours que I'e'tude de ces animaux peut 

 fournir a la Geologle. Paris, 1839. 



§ Studii Pulaiontologici, p. 11. Verona, 1856. 



II Die Insekten-fauna der Tertiargebilde von CEningen und von Radoboj in Croatian. 

 Leipzig, 1849 Untersuchungen Uber d;is Klirca und die Vegetations- Verhaltuisse des Tertiarlandes. 

 Winterthur, 1860. 



June, 1878. 



