isro.] 227 



One of the first discovered, and by far tlie most interesting of these 

 insects, was obtained from an ironstone-pit, belonging to Herr Bocking, 

 at Scliwarzenbacb, in the district of Birkenfeld, and -vras described, in 

 18GG, by Dr. Anton Dohrn,* who named it 'Eugereon Bcec]cingi.'\ 



Dr. Dohrn states that Herr Tischbein and Dr. Hagen both re- 

 garded this insect as an Hemipteron, and he adds that he was originally 

 of the same opinion, but that after a further examination of this 

 remarkable fossil, he decided that it could not be referred to any 

 existing Order, as it combined characters both of the NeuropteraX and 

 Hemiptera. 



Dr. Dohrn does not, of course, regard Eugereon as a type of the 

 common ancestor or progenitor of the Neuroptera and Semijptera, as 

 both these Orders were already in existence; but he is of opinion that, 

 at a very remote period, a form existed completely intermediate between 

 these two Orders, from which they were differentiated, and from which 

 Eugereon was also descended. 



As this insect could not be referred to any existing Order, it was 

 placed by its describer in a new Order, which he created for it, and 

 which he named Didyoftera ; it has recently been included by Dr. 

 Goldenberg in his Order Palceodictyoptera.^ 



Another fossil, scarcely less interesting than Etigereon, discovered 

 by Herr Carl Eiickert in the neighbourhood of Stockheim, in Thuringia, 

 was described, in 1865, by Dr. H. B. Geinitz,|| who named it Ephemerites 

 Rucherti. From its union of characters of the genera Ephemera and 

 Lilellula, Dr. Goldenberg has recently placed this fossil in his Order 

 PalcEodictyoptera. 



A fragment of a wing, obtained from Weissig, near Pillnitz, in 

 Saxony, has been referred, by Herr Eugen Greinitz,^ to a species of 

 Semiptera — Fulgorina Klieveri ?— a specimen of which has been also 

 obtained from the European Coal-measures, and was alluded to in the 

 preceding paper** " On the Insecta of the Carboniferous Period." 



Dr. Groldeuberg has recently inf ormedft ''^^ that he is not aware of 

 any specimen of the last named species (F. Klieveri) having been dis- 

 covered in Permian strata ; but his opinion is that the two species of 

 Fulgorina, referred to in the lastif;;]: paper — viz., F. Ehersi and F. 



* " Palffiontogi-aphica," vol. xiii, p. 333, 1866. 



t For SI description of this fossil see " Palieontographica," last cit. ; also vol. xvi, p. 129, 1869, 

 the " Stettiiier Ent. Zeitung," Jahrg., xxviii, 1867 ; and Goldeuberg's " Fauna," pt. 2, antea cit., 

 pix 11—14. 



J It will be remembered that all the synthetic types, previously alluded to, exhibited a union 

 of the characters of Neuroptera and Orthoptera (see ante, papers A'os. '6 and 4). 



§ Fauna Sar. Foss , pt. 2, 1877, antea cit., p. 60. 



II Neues Jahrb. fur Min., &c , 186,'), pp. 335— 3b8. 



*![ See Neues Jahrb. fur. Min., &c., 1875, pp. 6 and 12, and plate i, fig. 3, p. 112. 



** See ante p. 171 of this vol. 



tt in litt., 12th January, 187y. 



%% fcee ante p. 171. 



