CXXVlil 
pyreneus and Pholeuon Querilhaci (Silphide), o° Claviger Duvalii, 
and of Langelandia anophthalma. He finds not only the optic nerve 
has disappeared, but also that the brain itself is profoundly altered, 
for as he expresses it, ‘‘ Les ganglions cérébroides, au lieu de former 
une sorte de masse transversalement disposée dans la téte, ont la 
forme de deux corps ovales allongés placés presque parallélement.” 
In the ‘Geological Magazine’ for September last is a short but 
interesting paper by -Mr. Dawson on paleozoic insects. The first 
belongs to the carboniferous period. Insects representing the Orders 
Neuroptera, Orthoptera and Coleoptera were long ago observed in the 
coal-fields of England and Westphalia. Until last year, however, 
though the coal-beds of Nova Scotia are rich in vegetable remains, no 
remains of insects had been observed in them. ‘The species now de- 
scribed by Mr. Scudder, under the name of Haplophlebium Barnesii, 
after its finder, is referred to the Ephemerina, and must have measured 
no less than seven inches across the wings. “We can easily under- 
stand,” says Mr. Dawson, “ that the swamps and creeks of carboni- 
ferous Acadia, with its probably mild and equable climate, must have 
been especially favourable to such creatures, and we can imagine the 
larve of these gigantic Ephemeras swarming on the deep black mud 
of the ponds in these swamps, and furnishing a great part of the food 
of the fishes inhabiting them, while the perfect insects, emerging from 
the waters to enjoy their brief space of aérial life, would flit in millions 
over the quiet pools and through the dense thickets of the coal- 
swamps.” 
Mr. Scudder describes four insects from the Devonian shales of 
New Brunswick, under the names of Platephemera antiqua, Homothetus 
fossilis, Lithentomum Harttii and Xenoneura antiquorum. ‘These are 
the oldest insects yet known to us, but Mr. Scudder is satisfied from 
the plants with which they are associated, that there can be no doubt 
of their belonging to the Devonian period. They are all Neuro- 
pterous, and allied to the Ephemeride. In the opinion of Mr. Scud- 
der, however, they show a “ remarkable union of characters now found 
in distinct orders of insects,’ and he lays special stress on the 
presence in Xenoneura of a stridulating or musical apparatus, much 
like that of the cricket. In addition to the interest of finding such 
an organ among the Neuroptera, this observation brings before our 
imagination, as Mr. Scudder says, “ the thrill and hum of insect-life 
that enlivened the solitudes of these strange old forests.” 
