234 Reviews — Dr. C. BrongjiiarVs Primary Fossil Insects. 



index of authors and references brought up to date, an extremely 

 vahiable list, for much of which the author is indebted to Professor 

 Scudder's Bibliography of Fossil Insects (1882). 



The second part consists of a study or investigation of the 

 neuration of the wings of living insects, belonging to the orders 

 Neuroptera, Orthoptera, and Fulgorida, groups to which the 

 Palaeozoic types seem to be most nearly allied. 



This portion of the work the author has felt compelled to under- 

 take for the more intelligible comparison of fossil forms with their 

 living representatives. The variety of names given by. different 

 authors to the nervures and other critical parts of the wing structure 

 has caused much confusion. The importance of a clear and dis- 

 tinctive nomenclature of the plan of neuration will be recognized 

 by entomologists, as the classification of fossil insects mainly rests 

 upon the position and distribution of the nervures or veins of the 

 wings, which are too often the only parts preserved. 



M. Brongniart remarks on this portion of his work that " we 

 have now, thanks to this study of the neuration, a foundation on 

 which to attempt the description of fossil species, not only of the 

 Coal-measures, but also of all geological epochs. Naturalists who 

 devote themselves to the study of fossil insects will be able to 

 resort with profit to our illustrations, and to our text to establish 

 comparisons." 



The third part of the monograph deals with the specific object 

 of the work, — the Comparative Study of the Fossil Insects of the 

 Carboniferous rocks with living types, by the light of the numerous 

 examples found at Commentry, many of which have been so 

 marvellously preserved that we have not only the wings but also 

 diff'erent parts of the body to assist in identification. 



Mr. S. H. Scudder, the eminent American entomologist, who has 

 written so much on fossil insects, in his memoir on the "Affinities 

 and Classification of Palaeozoic Hexapoda," ^ unites all the Coal- 

 measure insects in one great division, under the name of Pal^o- 

 dictyoptera (a term previously employed by Goldenberg), as he 

 considers they all belong to extinct species and are exclusively 

 developed in Palaeozoic deposits. 



Dr. Brongniart, on the contrary, does not agree with this opinion, 

 which he regards as a too hasty conclusion from insufficient and 

 fragmentary materials, and says " that Mr. Scudder, in establishing 

 this classification, had not at his command specimens so well 

 preserved and so numerous as mine, and that by the study of the 

 insects of Commentry we are able to demonstrate that the Palgeozoic 

 types can be classified in the orders created for living species." 



Dr. Brongniart recognizes three orders : the Neuroptera pseudo- 

 Orthoptera, the Orthoptera, and the Homoptera, in a group having 

 affinities with the Fulgorida. 



The order Neuroptera, the author says, " is largely represented 

 and already affords at this remote epoch a great variety of forms. 

 Some species are of gigantic size, and at all events it is well to 

 1 Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. iii, No. si, 1885. 



