THE INSECTS OF THE COAL 35 



sidered by Scudder, the great authority on fossil Insects, 

 to form an Order, the Palaeodictyoptera, distinct from 

 any of the existing Orders. The latter, he believes, 

 were evolved from the former in Mesozoic times. These 

 views do not appear to derive support from the wonder- 

 ful discoveries of M. Brongniart^ in the Upper Carboni- 

 ferous of Commentry in the Department of Allier in 

 Central France. Concerning this marvellous assemblage 

 of species, arranged by their discoverer into 46 genera 

 and loi species, Scudder truly says : — 



* Our knowledge of Palaeozoic insects will have been 

 increased three or four fold at a single stroke. . . . No 

 former contribution in this field can in any way compare 

 with it, nor even all former contributions taken together '.- 



When we remember that the group of fossil insects, of 

 which so much can be affirmed by so great an authority 

 as Scudder, lived at one time and in a single locality, we 

 cannot escape the conclusion that the insect fauna of the 

 habitable earth during the whole Palaeozoic period was 

 of immense importance and variety. Our knowledge of 

 this single group of species is largely due to the accident 

 that coal-mining in Commentry is carried on in the open air. 



Now, these abundant remains of insects, so far from 

 upholding the view that the existing orders had not been 

 developed in Palaeozoic times, are all arranged by 

 Brongnlart in four out of the nine Orders into which 

 insects are usually divided, viz. the Orthoptera, Neuro- 

 ptera, Thysanoptera, and Homoptera. The importance 

 of the discovery is well seen in the Neuroptera, the 

 whole known Palaeozoic fauna of this Order being 

 divided into 45 genera and 99 species, of which 2>3 ^^^ 

 72 respectively have been found at Commentry. 



Although the Carboniferous insects of Commentry 

 are placed in new families, some of them come wonder- 

 fully near those into which existing insects are classified, 

 and obviously form the precursors of these. This is true 



^ Charles Brongniart. — Recherches pour^ servir a Vhistoire des wsectes 

 /ossiles des temps primaires^ pre'ce'de'es d'tme Elude stir la nervalio7i des ailes 

 des insecles. 1894. 



^ S. H. Scudder, Am. Joiirn. Sci'., vol. xlvii, February, 1894. Art. viii. 



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