168 



Rev. P. B. Brodie — Remarks on Fossil Insects. 



of his coming to England I should have deferred my notice of 

 soiTie of our British Tertiary Arthropoda until he had examined the 

 large and varied series in my Collection. Unfortunately, he could 

 only spend a part of two days, so that the examination was very 

 cursory ; and, of course, it would require a very long and careful 

 examination to determine them. He thinks that the supposed 

 eggs of insects and annelids cannot be referred to either ; the 

 former he could not identify and the latter he considered to belong 

 to plants. Among the insect remains he detected the following : — 



(1) COLEOPTEKA. 



Curculio. 



Staphylintis. 



Cheironomus. 



Boccns (allied to). 



£later Bupi estidce. 



Telephoridm, and many others. 



(2) Hymenoptera. 



Ants, several genera, very numerous. 

 Gnats, abundant. 



(3) Lepidoptera. 



Moth, with body and wings. A rare 



and very fine specimen. 

 Butterflies, two wings. 



(4) DiPTEEA. 



Tipula, Crane fly, body and wings. 



,, "Wings. 

 SyrphidcB, several ; and many others. 



(5) Neukoptera. 



Tennites, nearly perfect, witb attached 



wings, several. 

 Dragon-fly, part of, including head, 



thorax and one wing ; several other 



wings. 

 Fhryganea, wings. 



(6) Orthopteba. 



Lociista, wings. 

 Gryllus, wing. 



(7) Hemiptera. 



Aphis. 



Cicada, wing and bodies. 



(8) Arachnida. 



Gastypus Woodivardii, and many 

 others ; one resembles Hpira of 

 Heer (P.B.B.). 



Myriapoda, one example. 



Among the Lias insects Mr. Scudder noticed an example of 

 Pal(Botermes, unfortunately ill-preserved and imperfect, but it is 

 desirable to record this genus from the Warwickshire Lias, as it 

 may be identical with the fine and perfect insect from Barrow- 

 on-Soar, described and figured by Dr. Woodward,^ half of which 

 is now in the British Museum (Natural History). In the Upper 

 Lias, from Dumbleton, Gloucestershire, he noted two large Neurop- 

 terous wings as being quite distinct from Libellula Brodiei, the finest 

 insect in my Collection, and to which they had been previously 

 assigned. Jn the Coal-measures at Commentry, in France, there is 

 a gigantic wing of a large, probably Netiropterons, insect, Meganeura 

 mongi, Brongniart, the head and body of which are gone, except 

 a thoracic portion to which enormous wings are attached. These 

 are very long, longer than broad, with an expanse of wing almost 

 approaching to that of a fair-sized bird. This is a most marvellous 

 Carboniferous insect, the largest known and larger than the wing 

 Arch(Boptihis ingens, Scudder, in my Collection, from the Coal Beds, 

 Chesterfield, Derbyshire, showing how favourable the conditions 

 must have been for the growth and development of certain forms 

 of insect life in that epoch. Since then the Neiiroptera and Blattida, 



1 Geological Magazine, Decade III. Vol. IX. p. 193, PL V. 1892. 



