1 Yfi ' January, 



TNTRODUCTOEY PAPERS ON FOSSIL ENTOMOLOGY. 

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



No. 10. 



Gcenozoic Time. 

 \0n the Insecta of the Miocene Period, and the animals and plants with 

 which they ivere correlated.'\ 



In the United Kingdom rocks of Miocene Age are only represented 

 in three or four localities ; but on the continents of Europe and North 

 America, and in Q-reenland and Spitzbergen, they are largely developed. 



Great Britain and Ireland. 

 Lower Miocene. 



A few fragments of insects were discovered by Prof. Heer,* about 

 eighteen years ago, in the clays and beds of lignite at Bovey Traceyf 

 in Devonshire, but only one of them was in a sufficiently perfect state 

 to be recognisable ; it consisted of part of an elytron of a beetle, 

 which was described by Heer, and named by him Bupresfites Falconeri. 

 According to Mr. Pengelly,! this fragment furnished the first evidence 

 of animal life discovered in the lignites of Bovey Tracey. 



Prof. Judd§ has recorded the discovery of the elytra of two species 

 of beetles in strata of Miocene Age, in the neighbourhood of Bally- 

 palidy in the County of Antrim, Ireland. 



Continental Em^ope. 

 Lower Miocene. 



From the lower division of a series of Miocene deposits in Swit- 

 zerland, lying between the Alps and the Jura, and known as the 

 "Molasse," from the soft nature of a sandstone forming one of its 

 principal members, about 33 species of insects have been determined 

 by Prof. Heer. II Of these 33 species, 2G belong to the Goleoptera, and 

 are distributed amongst the Garahidce,Dytiscid(B,Peltidce,Hydrop)hilidcs, 

 Melolonthidcs, Buprestidce, Elateridce, Helopidce, Lamiidce, and Ghryso- 

 melidae ; the Neuropfera are represented by LibelluUdce and Phryganeidce ; 

 the Jlymenoptera by one species of Vespidce ; the Diptera by one species 

 of Tipulidce ; and the Hemiptera by Pentatomidce and Gicndellince. 



From the lignites or " Brown Coal " of Sieblos, Stoschen, 

 Salzhausen, and Rett in the Siebengebirge, about 242 species of insects 



* " On the Fossil Flora of Bovey Traoey," Trans. Royal Soo. Lond., 1862. 



t The age of these beds is very doubtful ; they were described as Lower Miocene by Mr. Pen- 

 gelley and Dr. Heer in IS62, but quite recently Mr. J. S. Gardner and Baron von Ettingshausen, in 

 their Monograph of the British Eocene Flora (published by the Falajontographical Society, xx.>tiii, 

 p. 18, 18791, have referred them to the same horizon as those at Bournemouth ,i. e.. Middle Eocene). 



J " The Lignites and Clays of Bovey Tracey," Proc. Royal Soc. Lond., 1860 — 1862. 



§ Quar. Jour. Geol. Hoc, vol. xxx, p. 274, 1874. 



II " Recherches sur le climat et la v6g6tation du Pays Tertiaire," pp. 196—197 {the French 

 translation, by Dr. Gaudin, of lleer's " UntersUchungen ueber das Klima und die Vegetations 

 Vorhallmsse des Tertiarlandes "). 



