16 



unclimbtedly many more to be filled up among the annulosa. 



Considering the large number of genera and species of fossil 

 Insects already described from the Tertiary formations abrdad 

 the comparitively few hitherto recorded in this country in the 

 same division is remarkable, although it is probable that a 

 more accurate investigation vronld enlarge the list to a 

 considerable extent. At present however, it is so insignificant 

 that no fair comparison can be instituted between British 

 and foreign Tertiaries. The catalogue from the continental 

 deposits of this age, whether of older or later date, is so 

 very extensive that I have not given it below in detail, but 

 they will be found by those who wish to consult them in the 

 works * indicated below. 



In the secondary rocks, the British series of this class in 

 a fossil state, probably exceeds those which have been 

 already described from other places, whether on the Conti- 

 nent or America. The Solenhofen Slate in Germany, and 

 Carboniferous strata, both there and in America, yielding 

 the largest number, and the Lias in the Swiss Alps only a 

 very few. 



Even among the numerous and varied forms of Insects, 

 it was perhaps to be expected that the Lepidoptera should be 

 among the rarest. I have for some time possessed what was 

 supposed to be a fragmentary wing of this order from the 

 Dorsetshire Purbecks, but IMr. Scudder after a careful ex- 

 amination, has come to the conclusion that it is not 



* Bronn's 'Lethoea Geognostica,' on insects, from Aix, Amber and Brown Coal, 

 and Qermar in the ' Fauna Insectorum Europoe ' and ' Nova Acta '. M. Marcel des 

 Serres ' Goolognosie des Terrains Tertiaiar, ' and in the 'Quarterly Journal of Science,' 

 1828. Curtis, Edinburgh, Philosophical Journal No. 14, and Proceedings Geologcial 

 Society, 1829, p. 151 and 1830, p. 109 ; Eev. W. Hope, Trans. Entomological Society, 

 18S4, describes Insects in Amber, and also Bunneister, manual of Entomology, and 

 Mr. T. Smith in Quarterly Journal of Science, 1868. Unger, Von Charpentier, 

 Erichson and Scheuchzen, describe some of the foreign Tertiary Insects. 



