78 THE CLASS OF INSECTS. 



In the Coal-beds of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, sev- 

 eral interesting Myriopodous, Neuropterous 

 and Orthopterous insects have been found ; 

 among them a Cockroach, Archimulacris 

 Acadica (PL 1,* fig. 2). In Europe, Car- 

 boniferous insects have been discovered at 

 Wettin, Saarbriick, etc. 



The insects from these two formations 

 show a tendency to assume gigantic and 

 strange shapes. They are also compre- 

 Fig. 68. hensive types, combining the characters of 



different families and even different suborders. The most re- 

 markable instance is the Eugereon Boeckingii Dohrn, from the 

 Coal Formation of Germany. It has been referred by Dr. 

 Hagen, with some doubt, to the Hemiptera, from its long im- 

 mense rostrum into which all the mouth-parts are produced, the 

 labium ensheathing them as usual in the Hemiptera. Its fore- 

 legs are large and raptorial ; but the filiform many-jointed an- 

 tennae, and the net-veined wings are Neuropterous characters. 

 Hence Dohrn considers it as a comprehensive type uniting 



* EXPLANATION OF PLATE 1. 



Fig. 1. Miamia Bronsonii. A Neuropterous insect found in iron-stone concre- 

 tions in the Carboniferous beds at Morris, Illinois. The figure is magnified one- 

 third, and has all its parts restored ; the dotted lines indicate the parts not existing 

 on the stone. Reduced from a figure in the Memoirs of the Boston Society of Nat- 

 ural History, Vol. I. 



Fig. 2. Archimulacris Acadica. Wing of a Cockroach observed by Mr. Barnes 

 in the coal-formation of Nova Scotia. 



Fig. 3. Platephemera antiqua. A gigantic May-fly obtained by Mr. Hartt in the 

 Devonian rocks of New Brunswick. 



Fig. 4. Xylobius sigillarice. The Myriopod (or Gaily- worm) found in the coal- 

 formation of Nova Scotia, by J. W. Dawson. Copied from a figure in Dr. Dawson's 

 Air-breathers of the Coal-period. Magnified. 



Fig. 5. Lithentomum Hartii. A Neuropterous insect, the specimen first dis- 

 covered by Mr. Hartt in the Devonian rocks of New Brunswick. This fossil, and 

 those accompanying it, are the oldest insect-remains in the world. 



Fig. 6. Three facets from the eye of an insect, considered by Dr. Dawson a 

 Dragon-fly. It was found in coprolites of reptiles in the rocks containing the My- 

 riopod, represented in Fig. 4. Copied from Dr. Dawson's figure, greatly magnified. 



Fig. 7. Homothetus fossilis. A Neuropterous insect from the Devonian rocks of 

 New Brunswick ; it was discovered by Mr. Hartt. 



Fig. 8. HaplophleUum Barnesii. A curious Neuropterous insect, of large size, 

 probably allied to our May-flies; taken by Mr. Barnes from the coal of Cape Bre- 

 ton. 



These figures, with the exception of 1, 4, and 6, are of life size, and borrowed 

 from the new edition of Dr. Dawson's Acadian Geology. 



