i 



145 



overlying Hastings sands and Weald clay. This series is best 

 seen at Durdlestone Bay near Swanage, at Lulworth Cove, and 

 the neighbouring bays between "Weymouth and Swanage. The 

 Purbeck beds were divided by Professor Edward Forbes into the 

 upper, middle, and lower. It is from the middle and lower 

 divisions that the greatest quantity of insect remains have been' 

 recorded. These remains have been discovered principally by the 

 Kev. 0. Fisher, Mr. W. K. Brodie, Captain Woodley, Mr. C. 

 Wilcox, and especially by the Rev. P. B. Brodie, of whom 

 Professor Westwood observes that, " from his attention having 

 been especially directed to this branch of the subject, he has been 

 highly successful in detecting minute fragments of insect remains 

 in small slabs of stone, which would to a less educated eye have 

 been passed over as destitute of any traces of ancient animal 

 life." * In the " Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society " for 

 1846, Mr. Brodie recorded the discovery of a few imperfect 

 remains of insects in Purbeck strata, in the neighbourhood of 

 Swindon, Wilts. A large collection of insect remains, consisting 

 of one hundred and eighteent small slabs, containing many 

 specimens, was made by Mr. Brodie from the middle Purbeck of 

 Durdlestone Bay, Dorsetshire. These remains included elytra, 

 bodies, and wings referable to Coleoptera, Orthoptera, and Dipfem, 

 and portions of wings of Neuropterom insects of doubtful family. 

 A number of specimens of fossil insects were obtained by the 

 Eev. O. Fisher from the Eidgway Quarries near Dorchester, 

 belonging to the lower Purbecks. A large collection of fossil 

 insects was also obtained by Mr. Wilcox from the Purbeck beds 

 near Swanage ; the collection consisted of some 60 slabs, each 

 containing a number of remains. Professor Westwood says these 

 remains included a very extensive series of elytra of Cokoptera, 

 including Buprestidce and Harpaldce, also fragments of the wings 

 of LibelMidce, Blattidx, Tipulidce, &c. A small collection of 



* "Quarterly Joiimal of the Geological Society," 1846, vol. III., 

 pp. 53-54. 



t "Proceedings of the Geological Society," 1854. 



