July, 1879] 25 



INTEODUCTORY PAPERS ON FOSSIL ENTOMOLOaY. 



BY HEBBEET GOSS, P.L.S., F.G.S. 



No. 7. 



PAET II. 



Mesozoic Time. 



\_0n the Insecta of tlie Jurassic Period, and the animals and p/a«?s 

 ivitli luliicli they were correlated.^ 



Great Britain. 



Lower Oolite. 



(^Stonesjleld Slate). 



Tlie fossil insects obtained from the Stonesfield Slate have, with 

 two exceptions, been referred to the Coleoptera* and Neuroptera. The 

 first-named Order is represented by the families Buprestidce, Tene- 

 hrionidce, CurcuUonid<s, Prionidce, and CoccineUidce; and {he Neuroptera 

 include a few LilellulidcB, and the wings of a large species, named by 

 Dr. Buclilandf Hemerohioides giganfeus. 



The most interesting fossil insect from this formation is the wingj 

 of a large species which has been referred to the Lepidoptera by Mr. 

 Butler,§ and named by him Palceontina oolitica. Mr. Butler's opinion 

 as to the Order to which this fossil belongs is, I believe, confirmed by 

 Prof. Westwood, Mr. Bates, and other well known entomologists ; but 

 Mr. Scudder refers the wing to an insect allied 'to Cicada. As this 

 difference of opinion, as to the Order of which Palceontina oolitica 

 was a representative, has been noticed at some length in an earlier 

 paper, II it is, probably, unnecessary to further allude to it. 



Vpper Oolite. \ 

 {Purhechs) . 

 From the middle and lower divisions of the Purbeck beds in 

 Dorsetshire, Wiltshire, and Buckinghamshire, fossil insects have been 

 discovered in considerable numbers, and in some localities they have 

 been found in such abundance that the beds containing them have, as 

 in the Lias, been called the "Insect Limestone." 



The majority of these fossils from the Dorsetshire Purbecks — 



* Brodie's " Fossil Insects," and Giebel's " Fauna der Vorwelt," anUa cit. 



t Proc. Geol. Soc. Lond., vol. ii, p. 688. Dr. Hagen is of opinion that this fcssil should be 

 referred to the genus Apochrysa : " Entomologists' Annual," 1862, p. 8. 



t A second fragment of a wing, supposed to be Lepidoptcrous, has also been obtained from 

 the Stone.sfield Slate, but it has not, I think, been figured or described. 



§ " Lepidoptera Exotica," pp. 126—128, and the " Geol. Mag," vol. x. 



II See vol. XV of this Magazine (E. M. M.i, p. 55. 



^ A few elytra of Cokoptera have been discovered in the Great Oolite and Forest Marble of the 

 Lower Oolite, and in the Kimmeridge Clay of the Upper Oolite ; but as thej'are veryfragnientaiy 

 and imperfect, and have not been identified with any known genera, they call for no .special notice. 



