22 FOSSIL INSECTS OF THE BRITISH COAL MEASURES. 



A succession of such lagunal lakes or swamp pools might be seasonal features 

 along a depression which, in a wet season, formed a water-course. 



The paucity of Mollusca is noteworthy, only one species (" Unio ") having been 

 recorded by Moysey, notwithstanding his careful search of material from the 

 Shipley clay-pit at Ilkeston, Derbyshire; while Kirkby, and more recently 

 Trechmann and Woolacott have recorded Antkracomya pkillipsii, in addition 

 to " Ancylus vinti " (now known to be the larval form of A. phillipsii), from the 

 insect-bearing beds at Claxheugh, near Sunderland. 



The deposits at Sparth Bottoms, Rochdale, Lancashire, are remarkable in that 

 they have yielded three species of Carlonicola, four species of Naiadites, and one 

 species of Antkracomya. 



In regard to the presence of Crustacea, Thomson (1894, 'Trans. Linn. Soc. 

 London,' Zoology [2], vol. vi, p. 3), has shown that the recent Anasptdes tasmanise 

 lives in freshwater pools and lakes which are wholly cut off from the sea, and 

 Dr. H. Woodward (1908, < Geol. Mag.' [5] vol. v, p. 385) has described an allied 

 form, Preanaspides prascursor, from the Coal Measures of Shipley Clay-pit. 

 Further research may prove that not only Preanaspides, but such forms as 

 Belinurus, Prestwichia, Euryptems and Anthrapalaemon were also fresh-water in 

 habit, co-existing with insect larva? in the lagoons and swamp lakes. 



Observations by the writer during the visit of the British Association to 

 Australia in 1914 bear on this point. While collecting in the " Bush country " at 

 St. Margaret's Bay, Western Australia, at Warburton, S. Australia, and else- 

 where, examination of almost every loose sheet of bark hanging to the gum trees 

 revealed a colony of scorpions, millipedes, spiders and cockroaches. In the 

 Australian localities mentioned true " bush " conditions prevailed, and seemed 

 much unlike those of low-lying swamps, such as are predicated for the Coal 

 Measure period. Subsequent experiences along the coast of North Queensland 

 modified these first impressions. It was found that notwithstanding the hot 

 tropical day, or perhaps by reason .of it, the nights brought an extremely heavy 

 dew, so that it was impossible to move four yards in the jungle before the clothing 

 was running with water discharged from the leaves of the jungle plants. In a 

 short time after sunrise the jungle was dry again, but much of the moisture must 

 have been caught up under projections capable of resisting the penetration of the 

 sun's heat. In the " bush " country, slabs of bark may give conditions which the 

 arthropod fauna find the most tolerable during the hot season. The Australian 

 winter with its heavy rains would more nearly accord with swamp conditions. 

 Long stretches of the coastline of Queensland, north of Brisbane, the country 

 along the Hinchinbrooke Channel, and in the neighbourhood of Townsville, are 

 low-lying, and covered by dense mangrove swamps growing out into the sea and 

 completely hiding the outlets of rivers. 



The conditions seem similar to those of the low-level country, swamp and 



