274 



each of these alewives carries in her mouth an insect, about 

 two inches long, hanging with its back downwards, and 

 firmly holding by its fourteen legs to the palate. The 

 fishermen call this insect the louse. Mr, Latrobe names it 

 oniscus prcegustator. 



Whether our unknown fossil animal had antennae or 

 feet, as I suspect, or not, cannot perhaps be determined, 

 and therefore the character of an oniscus cannot be claimed 

 for it ; and yet the structure of its body, with its transverse 

 imbricating slips, is so much in agreement with this living 

 insect, as to induce me to place the figure of the latter 

 before the reader, (PL x. fig. 2,) with the hope of its leading 

 to a more successful investigation as to the origin of the fossil. 



Lhwydd relates that he found, in coal slate, the fossil 

 remains of spiders, and other remains approaching, in 

 their forms, to those of scarabcei. In the Stonesfield oolitic 

 slate are impressions with a slight brownish stain, the origin 

 of which has not yet been ascertained. They bear a figure 

 which somewhat resembles, in its outline, that of the figure 

 by which a crown is represented : by some they have been 

 considered as bearing a resemblance to two united wings 

 of a butterfly ; and, by others, have been supposed to have 

 been the impressions of the detached plates of some species 

 of tortoise. 



We find, in the invaluable work of the Rev. W. D. 

 Coneybeare and W. Phillips, speaking, most probably, 

 in reference to these fossil remains, that " specimens, which 

 have been decidedly pronounced, by Dr. Leach, to be the 

 elytra of coleopterous insects, occur in the Stonesfield slate ; 

 they are of two or three different species."* 



In the yellow fossile limestone of Pappenheim, Oeningen, 

 &c. are found the remains of insects ; but these are also in 



* Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales, by the Rev. 

 W. D. Coneybeare and W. Phillip?, Vol. i. p. 208. 



