182 Psyche [December 



insects from all horizons, but examined European collections, 

 visited some of the classical localities, and published descriptions 

 of a number of new European species. 



Scudder's first paper on fossil insects, published in 1865, related 

 to those ancient forms from New Brunswick, considered by many 

 Canadian geologists to be of Devonian age, but on the evidence 

 of the accompanying fossil plants, referred by David ^^^lite and 

 Kidston to the Carboniferous. In time, his work on Palaeozoic 

 insects assumed large proportions, nearly two hundred species 

 being described. In Scudder's opinion, the Palaeozoic insects 

 were not separated into orders like those of the present day, but 

 nevertheless could be divided into groups which more or less resem- 

 bled modern orders. It was not that the Palseodictyoptera were 

 characterized by any very marked ordinal characters, but they 

 lacked the special features which distinguished the living groups. 

 Even in the case of the Palaeozoic cockroaches, Scudder thought 

 that they should be separated from the true Orthoptera, though 

 certainly ancestral to them. These Palaeoblattariae were supposed 

 to be exclusively Palaeozoic, until numerous species were found 

 in the "Trias" of Colorado. In the opinion of David Wliite, 

 however, the so-called Triassic beds at Fairplay are not later than 

 Permian, "if indeed they are above the highest Coal measures," 

 and consequently are Palaeozoic. 



These opinions of Scudder's have given rise to some controversy, 

 and today few would maintain the all-inclusive "Palaeodictyoptera" 

 in the sense of Scudder. The following table contrasts Scudder's 

 arrangement of the Palaeozoic insects wdth the most modern, that 

 of Handlirsch : 



Handlirsch Scudder 



Order Palaeodictyoptera. Palaeodictyoptera in part. 



Dictyoneuridae. Orthopteroidea Protophasmida. 



Neuropteroidea Hemeristina. 



" Homothetidse. 



Lycocercidse. N.* Palephemeridae (?) 



Homothetidse. N. Homothetidse. 



Breyeriidse. O. Protophasmida. 



Brodiidse. N. Hemeristina. 



Paoliidae. O. Protophasmida. 



*N. =Neuropteroidea; O. = Orthopteroidea. 



Lithomantidse. 



