1879.] 125 



Goleopfe7'a, Neuroftera, Diptera, and Symenoptera. The Coleoptera* 

 are principally represented by elytra of Buprestidce and Curculionidce; 

 and the Neuroptera include the wing o£ an u^scJina in a remarkably 

 fine state of preservation. 



Upper Eocene. 



The most important collection of fossil insects from strata of this, 

 or indeed any other, division of the Eocene Period, was obtained by 

 Mr. E. J. A'Court-Smith,t from a thin bed of limestone, belonging to 

 the Eembridge series, at Gurnet Bay, Isle of Wight. A large number 

 of the insects comprised in this collection were placed in the hands of 

 Dr. Henry Woodward, and were by him submitted to Mr. Frederick 

 Smith, J who identifled about 12 species of Coleoptera belonging to the 

 genera SydropliUus, Dytiscus, Curculio, Anobimn, Doi'cus, and Staphy- 

 linus; 23 species of Neuroptera, belonging to the genera Termes, Perla, 

 Agrion, LibeUula, Fhryganea, and Semerohhis; 3 species of Orthoptera, 

 including a GryUolnlpa, and two grasshoppers ; and 2 or 3 Hemiptera. 

 The collection also included about 50 specimens of Diptera — chiefly 

 TipitUdts and CuUcidie ; 35 wings of Ilymenoptera, the great majority 

 of which were referred by Mr. E. Smitli to ants of the genera Myrmica 

 and Formica ; and 2 specimens referred to the genus Lithosia of the 

 Lepidoptera. These two specimens of Lepidoptera are of especial 

 interest as being the first recorded rcjDresentatives of this Order from 

 British Tertiary strata. 



Erom the nature of the flora of this country during the Eocene 

 Period, as evidenced by the numerous and varied plant remains of the 

 lower Bagshot sands, and some other divisions of the same Period, 

 there can be little doubt that the Insecta were then abundantly repre- 

 sented, and their rarity as fossils in the Eocene formations of Great 

 Britain can only be accounted for on the assumption that the conditions 

 under which they were deposited must have been generally unfavourable 

 to their preservation. 



Continental Europe. 

 3fiddle§ Eocene. 

 The only strata of this division of the Eocene Period, on the 



* Proc. Entom. Soc. London, for March 6th, 1878. 



t Nature, vol. xi, No. 26(5, Dec3iuber, 1874. 



X Proc. Geol. Soc. London, for December 19th, 1877, No. 343 (Session 1877—1878). 



§ In June, 1877, Profes.sor Rupert Jones informed u;e that a number of fos.sil insects had 

 then recently been obtained from freshwater limestone of Lower Eocene Age in the neighbourhood 

 of Serzanne, Marne, France ; and that delicate plaster casts of .several of them had been made by 

 Profes.sor Hubert and his assistants. As I believe these insects have never been described, I have 

 thought it unnece.s.sary to refer to them, except in a note. 



