No. 14. — The Devonian Insects of New Brunswick. 
By Dr. H. A. HAGEN. 
Havixa lately had occasion to examine anew the venation of Neurop- 
tera with special reference to their affinities with the older fossil insects, 
I have made a detailed comparison of the majority of the types of the 
Devonian Insects with the Neuroptera and Pseudoneuroptera of the pres- 
ent day. The conclusions at which I have arrived from this study are 
radically different from the views entertained by Mr. Seudder. I have 
thought that the simplest method of presenting my views would be to 
give them in the form of a detailed review of the last memoir on the 
subject by Mr. Scudder. 
This memoir is a part of the “ Anniversary Memoirs of the Boston 
Society of Natural History,” 1880, 4to, p. 41, Plate I. The fragments 
of the six described insects were discovered in 1862 by the late Prof. 
C. F. Hartt, and are considered to be the six oldest known fossil insects. 
They are especially interesting, not only as the most ancient representa- 
tives of their class yet discovered, but as (p. 30) “nearly all are syn- 
thetic types of a comparatively narrow range," filling in some way the 
gaps between more or less widely separated families and orders of the 
actually existing insects. Indeed, four of them are reported to belong 
to new families, all of a synthetic character: Atocina, Homothetidæ, 
Cronicosialina, Xenoneuridæ. The prominent value of those fragments 
justifics a large number of more or less detailed communications by. the 
same author since 1865, which are now followed by this very elaborate 
memoir, with entirely new and improved figures, and with a number of 
important conclusions as the final result of his work. It must be 
acknowledged that these conclusions would be of the greatest impor- 
tance for the history of the evolution of insects, if the descriptions, the 
determinations, and the statements by the author could be accepted 
without any further reserve. Of course, they must be able to stand the 
most severe tests, if they are to be accepted. The obvious importance of 
these questions, and the fact that I have studied through many years 
the living and fossil insects of the families to which these fragments 
belong, may explain why I give here in detail the result of my studies, 
and my objections to the views of the-author. Science needs truth, and 
consists in truth. Otherwise no advance in the solution of the great 
VOL. VIII. — NO. 14. 
