2 [June, 



taught us that the clue which is furnished, by a study of the fossil 

 remains of these animals, to a knowledge of the land and freshwater 

 conditions of the earth, and of its climate and vegetation in past ages, 

 is at least as valuable as, and in some respects more valuable than, that 

 afforded by a study of the remains of other orders of the animal 

 kingdom. Sir Charles Lyell* has also exj)ressed an opinion to the 

 same effect. 



Probably the chief reason why fossil insects have received so little 

 attention, as compared with the amount bestowed on the remains of 

 other animals, is that they are, so far as present discoveries enable us 

 to judge, very rare, except in a few localities ;t and when found are 

 frequently in such a fragmentary and imperfect condition as to render 

 the identification of the genera, or in some cases even the orders to 

 which they belong, a matter of the greatest difficulty. 



The fact that insect remains, especially from the oldest rocks, are 

 not unfrequently in an imperfect condition is not surprising ; and it 

 is rather a matter of astonishment that any traces of such fragile 

 animals should have been preserved to us at all after the lapse of ages. 

 In some cases, however, the strata in which insects have been found, 

 and the circumstances under which they became embedded therein, 

 appear to have been especially favourable to their preservation, ren- 

 dering the determination of their species, or at least of the genera 

 to which they belong, a matter of no more difficulty than in the case 

 of living insects. 



A further reason, probably, for the comparative neglect of this 

 branch of Palaeontology is, that even a superficial acquaintance with 

 the various orders of insects, and theii" families and genera, is much 

 less frequently possessed by Geologists and Palaeontologists than a 

 knowledge of the Yertehrata, the MoUusca, or the Crustacea ; and 

 although students of Bracltiopoda amongst the MoJlusca, and of 

 Enfomostraca and other classes of the Crustacea, can be counted by 

 the score, there are, I think, scarcely half-a-dozen English Greologists 

 who would be capable of forming an opinion as to the order even, to 

 which a fossil insect, when discovered, should be referred. 



On the continent, however, the study of fossil entomology is 

 receiving, and has, during the last thirty years, received, a considerable 

 amount of attention from Dr. Heer, Dr. Giebel, Dr. Hagen, Professor 

 Germar, Dr. Goldenberg, M. Oustalet, and many others. 



• Lyell's Elements of Geology, 6th edit , p. 255. 



+ Such as ffiningeii, in Switzerland ; Eadoboj, in Croatia ; Siebengebirge on the Rhine : 

 Corent and Menat, in Aiivergne ; Aix, in Provence; Monte Bulca, near Veroua, in Italy ; and in 

 several places in North America. 



