288 



PSl'CHE. 



January i8qo. 



the world, — in SvvaJen by Thorell and 

 Lindstrom, in Scotland by Peach and 

 Hunter, and in New York by Whitfield, 

 all brought out at very nearly the same 

 time, are unprecedented in the annalg 

 of this division of science. These were 

 followed almost immediately by Brongni" 

 art's surprising discovery of one of the 

 hexapods, Palaeoblattina^ in the Silur- 

 ian of France, still the only known true 

 insect in this ancient deposit. Coming 

 down a stage later we have the remark- 

 able Devonian insect-fauna of New 

 Brunswick, about the nature of which 

 there has been so much dispute, first 

 announced, it is true, before our period, 

 but only fully published with figures of 

 the species in iSSu ; a single addition 

 or two has recentlv been made to them 

 by Matthew. With them must be 

 classed the Devonian myriopods, the 

 earliest known members of that group, 

 fully elaborated by Peach. In the car- 

 boniferous period we have the striking 

 wealth of forms from Mazon Creek and 

 other deposits in our country wdiich T 

 have described at various times, includ- 

 ing so extraordinary a number of blat- 

 tarians that 1 have ventured to call this 

 period, so far as its insect-fauna is 

 concerned, ''the age of cockroaches." 

 These discoveries, largely due in this 

 country to the activity and zeal of Mr. 

 Lacoe, have been even more than paral- 

 leled by the unexampled wealth rightlv 

 claimed for Commentry in Fiance by 

 Brongniart, who as yet has published 

 hardly more than an outline sketch to 

 whet the appetite of tiie zealot. At 

 this place are found, as Mr. Brong- 



niart informs me in a recent letter, a 

 considerable niauber of types already 

 signalized in America, which indeed 

 we had a right to anticipate by the 

 comparisons that had been made between 

 the forms already published from other 

 localities in the two countries, new 

 discoveries on one continent having 

 repeatedly been followed sooner or later 

 by very similar finds on the other. The 

 abundance of cockroaches in both 

 covmtries is fully sustained at Commen- 

 try, which has yielded the vast number of 

 nearly six hundred specimens, or many 

 more than are known from all other 

 carboniferous localities in the world 

 taken together. Still another striking 

 discovery in the carboniferous rocks is 

 the recent finding in Silesia of coleoptera, 

 the first time that these have been 

 signalized at this early epoch, but their 

 description is yet to come. 



These are the principal larger discov- 

 eries in the paleozoic series, but they 

 have been accompanied by the publica- 

 tion of many striking forms which 

 indicate the ancestral types of living 

 insects, or by the better elucidation of 

 types already known but whose signifi- 

 cance had not been understood. To 

 specify some of these we may mention 

 Falaeocaiwpa and Acatitherpestes 

 among the myriapods, the former with 

 the curious and highly developed struc- 

 ture of the spinous hairs, the latter with 

 its possession of segmental organs or 

 branchial supports as well as stigmata, 

 indicating a probable amphibious habit ; 

 Anthraco7nartus^ Kreischeria^ and 

 Geralinura^ the two former examples 



