194 Lr. H. Woodward — On a New Lias Insect. 



some of the minor divisions insect-remains have been discovered 

 in such abundance that the beds containing them have, as in 

 the ' Purbecks,' been called ' Insect - Limestone.' Fossil insects 

 have been found, chiefly in the lower division of this formation, 

 in Gloucestershire,^ Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Somersetshire, 

 Dorsetshire, and on the borders of Monmouthshire ; a few have 

 also been found in Yorkshire.'^ They are generally in a much more 

 fi-agnieutary condition than those from the 'Purbecks,' and are less 

 common than in the latter formation. 



" Mr. P)rodie states that he first discovered these interesting fossils 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of Gloucester,^ and he adds, that 

 some of the beds of limestone in the lowest division of the Lias, 

 in the Vale of Gloucestei", abound in insects ; and that beautiful 

 specimens, chiefly elytra and wings, have also been found in the 

 Upper Lias at Dumbleton and Alderton. 



" At Dumbleton, which is IS.E. of Cheltenham, Mr. Brodie obtained 

 from the Upper Lias shales one nearly perfect Neuropteroiis insect, 

 of which Prof. Westwood says * : 'It possesses an arrangement of 

 the w^ing- veins differing from that of any English species, and also 

 from any foreign species known to me, but it comes nearest to the 

 small Libellulce forming the genus Diplax.' 



" In the Upper and Middle portions of the Lower Lias, which 

 are extensively developed in the neighbourhood of Gloucester and 

 Cheltenham, traces of insects are said to be exceedingly scarce ; 

 but at Wainlode Cliff, on the banks of the Severn, near Gloucester, 

 the Insect Limestone has produced remains of several genera of 

 Coleoptera. In the Insect-Limestone to the south-west of Combe 

 Hill, not far fi'om the last-mentioned locality, Mr. Brodie obtained 

 a great number and variety of insect-remains, consisting chiefly of 

 the elytra of Coleoptera, and a few imperfect but large wings of 

 Libellulidce. 



"At Apperley, near Wainlode Cliff, remains of insects have been 

 found in plenty, many small slabs, three or four inches square, 

 exhibiting several elytra and wings, and a few small Beetles. 



"From the Insect-Limestone, near the village of Hasfield, Glouces- 

 ter, many elytra of Coleoptera have been obtained. The same 

 formation, in the neighbourhood of Forthamjjton, near Tewkesbury, 

 has also furnished fossil insects, belonging to the same families as 

 those found in the localities before mentioned. 



1 In a note at p. 378 of tlie Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. 1854, Prof. 

 Westwood states that " A rich collection of fossil insects, from the Lias of Gloucester- 

 shire, etc., has been made hy Mr. W. K. Bintield, to whom also the Museum of the 

 Geological Society is indebted for a suite of insects from the Lias of Lyme Hegis." 



* The Rev. J. F. Blake has described and figured two fragments of insects from 

 the Yorkshire Lias. One specimen consists of an elytron of a beetle, named by Mr. 

 Blake BujirestiUs bractoides, and the other specimen consists of two wings of a 

 NeuropUroiis insect, apparently belonging to some species allied to Clumliudcs, which 

 Mr. Blake has named Chauiiudites ininor. See " Yorkshire Lias," by Ralph Tate 

 and J. F. Blake, London, 1876, p. 426, pi. xvi. figs. 5 and 6. 



2 See Brodie's "Fossil Insects," pp. 51-103, and the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 

 vol. iv. 1846, pp. 14-16. 



* See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. v. 1849, pp. 31-35. 



