REVISION OF AMERK^'VN PALEOZOIC INSECTS." 



By Anton IIandliksch. 



Adjund Curator of the Roiial Itjt/>rrl((/ Xdlitnil Ifislorii Museum, VIrnna, Austria. 



INTRODUCTION. 



During- many 3'ears the late Mr. K. D. Lacoe, of Pittston, Penn- 

 83'lvania, was an ardent collector of plants and insects, lentil recently 

 hut one locality in the United States yielded specimens of Paleozoic 

 insects in numbers sufficient to warrant collectors to look for these 

 rarest of fossils. This locality is along Mazon Creek, in (Irundy 

 County, Illinois, where the nodules have weathered out of the Upper 

 Carboniferous shales. Mr. Daniels tells the present writer that about 

 one insect is found to every 1,000 concretions, and were it not for the 

 splendid plants and the rare invertebrates found inside the other 990 

 nodules no collectmg- at all could l)e done. For many years Mr. 

 Lacoe otl'ered a premium for every nodule containing an insect, arach- 

 nid, or myriapod, and eventually he was enabled to assemble To insect- 

 bearing- concretions. These were partially described by Prof. S. H. 

 Scudder, and now all of them have been studied by Prof. Anton 

 Handlirsch. 



In the plant-bearing- beds of the anthracite and l)itumiiious regions 

 Mr. Lacoe occasionally secured a single insect wing, and when the 

 tinds became sufficient to warrant digging for them he would specially 

 detail a collector to examine the shales of a given locality. Rarely 

 did such work 3'ield more than a few insect wings each dav, l>ut after 

 long perseverance about 62.5 specimens were collected. 



With the greatest generosity all this material was presented by Mr. 

 Lacoe during his lifetime to the V. S. National Museum, on condition 

 that the collection should be made accessible to paleontologists and that 

 he 1)6 allowed to add further material from time to time. Unfortu- 

 nateh' for science, he lived luit a few months after making this splen- 

 did gift, and it will probably be a long while before another person so 

 generous, large-hearted, and tinancially equipped will give of his time 

 and talents so abundantly for the furtherance of this branch of pale- 

 ontology. 



"Translated from the German by Lucy Peck P>nph, libraiian ami assistant, jjenlocj- 

 ical department, Yale University Museum. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXIX— No. 1441. 



661 



