NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 197 



however, be referred to any existing order, but belonged to some 

 synthetic or homogeneous types uniting in themselves character- 

 istics of Neuroptera andOrthoptera, or Neuroptera and Hemiptera, 

 proving that at this early period the differentiation of many of the 

 existing groups was not completed. ^Lttention was then called to 

 the discovery last year of fossil scorpions (insectivorous animals) 

 in the Upper Silurian of the Isle of Gothland and Scotland, and 

 of the wing of a cockroach in the middle Silurian of Jurques, 

 Calvados, France. Prior to these discoveries no remains of 

 terrestrial animals had been discovered from any strata older 

 than the Devonian, and the result of the discovery of this 

 cockroach in Silurian strata was to leave the insects the oldest 

 known class of land animals, and the Blatticlcs the oldest known 

 family of insects. The paper concluded with a summary of the 

 results of recent discoveries, and it was stated that the evidence 

 afforded by Palaeontology was, as far as it went, in support of 

 the views as to the origin of insects and the order of succession on 

 the earth of the various groups arrived at by Dr. Packard and 

 others from a study of the embryology of the class. No evidence 

 had, however, yet been obtained of the existence of any earlier 

 forms connecting the Insecta with those lower groups from which 

 they are, by many biologists, believed to have originated. 



Entomological Collections at the U.S. National 

 Museum. — We understand that Prof. Baird, Director of the 

 U.S. National Museum, has decided to appoint an assistant 

 Curator of the Department of Insects in that Museum, at a 

 salary of 1500 dollars per annum, and that Prof. Eiley, the 

 honorary curator, in view of the fact that this action will secure 

 the permanent care of collections, in case of his death or removal 

 from Washington, has decided to turn over to the Museum all 

 his own collections, the larger part of which are already deposited 

 in the Museum. It may be of some interest to learn how much of 

 a collection the National Museum can at present boast of. From 

 data kindly furnished by Prof. Riley, the following has been 

 compiled. 1st. Collection C. V. Riley, 17,725 species with 

 115,058 specimens, divided as follows: — Hymenoptera 2550 

 species, 24,796 spec; Coleoptera 9058 species, 48,618 spec; 

 Diptera 699 species, 5646 spec; Lepidoptera 2368 species, 

 17,098 spec; Hemiptera, 1134 species, 8862 spec ; Orthoptera, 

 560 species, 6903 spec; Neuroptera, 160 species, 868 spec; 



