January iSqiIi] 



psrcHE. 



289 



of new extinct family types of arachnids, 

 the last the first instance of the discovery 

 of the pedipalpi earlier than the terti- 

 aries, and found at brief intervals on two 

 continents ; other than this last of Kusta's 

 striking discoveries in the Bohemian 

 coal field might well be cited ; the gi- 

 gantic ephemerid, Palingenia^ of Bohe- 

 mia ; Dasyleptus^ an extraordinary 

 form of thj^saiiura, a group not previous- 

 ly known earlier than the tertiaries ; 

 Corydaloides^ like the preceding, one 

 of Brongniart's discoveries at Commen- 

 try, remarkable for the extensive display 

 of branchiae on the sides of the abdomen ; 

 Petrablattina sub tills of K liver (Stre- 

 phocladus) with its strange neuratlon ; 

 Brodia of England with its remarkable 

 coloration ; the gigantic Titanophastna ^ 

 also from Commentry ; the nymph of 

 Etoblattlna Woodward has published 

 from England, showing the same mode 

 of development among the ancient as 

 the modern cockroaclies ; and, finallv, 

 Phthanocoris^ the only hemipteroid 

 type yet found in our own paleozoic 

 rocks. 



All these memoranda relate to the 

 insects of the older formations only, but 

 the statements regarding them in no 

 proper way indicate the immense strides 

 we have made in our knowledge of the 

 earlier types. The decade has been 

 marked not only by extensive and strik- 

 ing additions to known types, far more 

 than doubling the number that had been 

 previously published ; it has witnessed 

 also the advent of many original workers 

 previously wholly unknown in this field, 

 such as Beecher, Deichmiiller, Karsch, 



Kliver, Kusta, Matthew, Peach, Sterzel, 

 Thorell, and Whitfield ; but it has also 

 seen the beginning of a new epoch in 

 the study of the earlier types, in that for 

 the first time the subjects have been 

 treated in much more than a scattered 

 way, by fuller discussions of the syste- 

 matic status of the insects described, by 

 attempts to systematize our knowledge, 

 and by the treatment in single groups of 

 insects from various or from all deposits, 

 and not alone in the simple discussion 

 of collections from a given deposit. 

 Let us hope that the constantly increas- 

 ing material and our larger knowledge 

 may permit in a new decade a further 

 correlation, by the comparative study of 

 insects of different horizons, especially 

 in the carboniferous age. 



Previous to the last decade there 

 had been scarcely a single attempt at the 

 systematic study of all the older insects, 

 or even of any of the minor groups 

 found in the paleozoic rocks. Hagen, 

 indeed, had treated briefly of the few 

 termitincC known over thirty years ago ; 

 Heer had attemptetl a grouping of the 

 cockroaches ; and Goldenberg had sum- 

 marized our knowledge of all by an 

 attempted classification ; but besides 

 these I do not recall a single instance 

 where any serious attempt had been 

 made to collate in a broad way our 

 knowledge of paleozoic insects as a 

 whole or in any of the parts. Only be- 

 cause it has so happened that the present 

 speaker has been perhaps the most acti\e 

 worker in this narrow field during the 

 last decade, is he obliged here to 

 mention mainly his own work, since 



