PKOCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 909 



23. Termopsis swinhoei. A, costapical part of wing ; B, side view of head ; C, joints 



of apical half of antenna. 



24. Hodotermes iristis. Wing. 



[Xule. — All of the foregoing figures have been copied from the papers quoted 

 above.] 



This paper is intended to draw your attention to the occurrence Mr. Fletcher, 

 in India of insects in a fossilized condition so that any of you, who have 

 an opportunity of so doing, may perhaps be able to procure further 

 material. I need hardly point out the extreme interest of the study 

 of fossil insects, more especially from the point of view of the light 

 which they throw upon the evolution of insects in the past. I can 

 only regret that I have as yet failed entirely to- obtain any specimens • 



of fossil insects in India and therefore I have no specimens to exhibit 

 to you. During a recent visit to Nagpur, I made a search in the inter- 

 tiappean limestones but entirely without success so far as insects were 

 concerned, although it was in this locality that Hislop obtained numerous 

 specimens some sixty years ago. 



The consideration of fossihzed specimens of insects leads us 

 to consider how insects are being preserved at the present day under 

 natural conditions in such a way that in the course of ages they may, 

 under favourable chances, become fossilized. Insects such as those 

 now found fossil in amber must have become enclosed in the amber 

 whilst this was still soft, presumably whilst it was oozing from the tree 

 in the form of a gum. Now, if we examine present-day gums as they 

 exude from the tree, we frequently find that this gum contains small 

 insects. I have here [exhibited] some pieces of Kadaii (Sterculia urens) 

 gum from the Dohad Hills forests and, if you examine them, you will 

 see that they contain small ants of existing species which are normally 

 found running about on tree-trunks and which have been caught in 

 this gum whilst it was still liquid, although it has now hardened. Under 

 natural conditions in an undisturbed forest, this gum might finally 

 get buried in the ground and in the course of ages would become 

 fossilized along with the included insects. 



Wben I was at Minbu in Lower Burma a few years ago I saw some 

 of the so-called " mud volcanoes " there. These are small hillocks 

 built up of mud by the action of a stream of mud which flows up from 

 underground. This mud is extremely fine and, when freshly exii'ded, 

 insects, even minute gnats, which fall onto it, are caught by the sticky 

 surface of the mud. I have here some specimens [exhibited] of insects 

 found half-imbedded in this mud and you will see that they have every 

 appearance of fossil specimens, now that the mud has hardened. If 

 this mud were preserved so as to form rock in the course of time, it 



