310 INSECTS IN SECONDARY AND TERTIARY STRATA. 



lands, by the same torrents that transported, the terrestrial 

 vegetables which have produced the beds of Coal. 



The existence of the w^ing-covers of insects in the Second- 

 ary Series, in the Oolitic slate of Stonesfield, has been long 

 known; these are all Coleopterous, and in the opinion of 

 Mr. Curtis many of them approach most nearly to the 

 Buprestis, a genus now most abundant in warm latitudes. 

 (See PI. 46''. Figs. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.*) 



Count Munster has in his collection twenty-five species 

 of fossil insects, found in the Jurassic Limestone of Solen- 

 hofen ; among these are five species of the existing Family 

 of Libellula, (See PI. 1, Fig. 49,) a large Ranatra, and 

 several Coleoptera. 



Numerous fossil Insects have recently been discovered in 

 the Tertiary Gypsum of Fresh-water formation at Aix, in 

 Provence. M. Marcel de Serres speaks of sixty-two Genera, 

 chiefly of the Orders Diptera, Hemiptera, and Coleoptera ; 

 and Mr. Curtis refers all the specimens he has seen from Aix 

 to European forms, and most of them to existing Genera.f 

 Insects occur also in the tertiary Brown coal of Orsberg on 

 the Rhine. 



* M.Aug- Odier has ascertained, that the Elytra and other parts of the 

 horny covering of insects, contain the peculiar substance Chitine or Ely- 

 trine, which approaches nearly to the vegetable principle Lignine ; these 

 parts of insects burn without fusion, or swelling, like horn, and witiiout 

 the smell of animal matter; they also leave a Coal which retains their 

 form. 



M. Odier found that even the hairs of a Scarahccus nasicornis retained 

 their form after burning, and therefore concludes that they are different 

 from the hairs of vertebral animals. This circumstance explains the preserva- 

 tion of the hairs on the horny cover of the Bohemian Scorpion. 



He ascertained also that the Sinews (Nervures) of Scaraba;i, are composed 

 of Chitine, and that the soft flexible laminae of the shell of a crab, which 

 remain after the separation of the Lime, also contain Ciiitine. 



Cuvier observes, that the Integuments of Entomostracons, are rather horny 

 than calcareous, and that in this respect they approximate to the nature of 

 Insects and Arachnidans. See Zoological Journal, London, 1825, vol. i. p. 



101. 



•J- See Edinburgh New Phil. Journ. Oct. 1829. 



