

Miscellaneous. 71 



suckers, as well as several other characters, escaped him ; and this 

 led him to place his Infusorian among the Ciliata. 



But, as we see, by certain characters it is a ciliated Infusorian, 

 and by others an Acinetine ; it is therefore necessary to form for it, 

 at least, a distinct family, which we propose to name Suctociliatae. 

 This family may be arbitrarily arranged in either of the orders as 

 an intermediate form ; or, if it be preferred, we may make of it the 

 new order Suctociliata. 



It remains to be learned whether the Suctociliata are not ancient 

 primitive forms which may have given origin, on the one hand, to 

 the Ciliata, by the disappearance of the suckers ; and, on the other, 

 to the Acinetina, by the suppression of the vibratile cilia ; or, indeed, 

 should we not rather regard AcareVct siro as a Ciliate which has 

 acquired suckers without having any genealogical relations with the 

 Acinetina? or, lastly, as an Acinetine which may have retained its 

 embryonic cilia until its adult age ? We cannot choose any one of 

 these three suppositions as being the most probable, all three of 

 them having considerations in their favour. The developmental 

 history of the Infusorian, which is very difficult to study on account 

 of its rapid movements, can alone decide the matter with certainty. 

 The last of the suppositions, however, seems to us the least probable. 



Coniptes Bendus, December 11, 1882, p. 1232. 



A new Fossil Ortliopterous Insect from the Coal-measures of Com- 

 mentry ^ Allier. By M. Charles Brongniart. 



* 



Until the present year only 110 species of insects were known 



from the Carboniferous rocks of the whole world. In France none 



were known until 1877, when the author received from 31. Gran- 



d'Eury some wings of Blattida) from St. Etienne ; and in the same 



year ML Fayol sent him from Commentry a Phasmian, described 



under the name of Protophasma Dumasii. Since that date, at least 



430 impressions have been obtained from the Coal-measures of 



Commentry ; these include 300 Blattidae and 130 insects of various 

 orders. 



From M. Fayol the author has just received a remarkable Ortho- 

 pteron of gigantic size, found by M. Bollard in fine blackish shales 

 at Commentry. All parts of the body, except the upper part of the 

 thorax and abdomen, are preserved. It approaches the Phas- 

 midie most closely ; and it is to that group that the author refers 

 it as forming a new genus, under the name of Titanophasma 

 Fayoli. 



The genus Titanophasma comes nearest to Protophasma among 

 fossil forms ; among recent types it resembles Phihalosoma in size 

 and the general form of the body, and in the presence of numerous 

 spines and warts upon its legs. In the length of the prothorax Pro- 

 tophasma differed from the existing Phasmidae ; in this respect 

 Titanophasma differs from Protophasma, and approaches the existing 



