xli 



the sales of Drury and Francillon's collections, of which priced 

 lists are preserved in the Hopeian Library of Entomologv at 

 Oxford. 



Commencing the scientific part of my report with the earliest 

 insect formations with which we are acquainted, I shall next 

 notice the more recent views of Evolutionists, &c., and then pro- 

 ceed to memoirs on the Anatomy, Metamorphoses, Economy, and 

 Descriptions of the various Orders of Insects. 



Fossil Entomology. 



A series of articles on fossil insects, by Mr. Herbert Goss,r.L S., 

 F.Z.S., has been read before the Brighton and Sussex Natural 

 Histor}^ Society, on the 9th March, 15th June and 9th November 

 last, published in the local journals of Sussex. In the first of these 

 the writer described the various formations of the recent and ter- 

 tiary periods, and the insect remains found therein ; in the second 

 paper he treated of the formations of the secondary period, in- 

 cluding the upper oolite, the lower oolite, the lias and the trias, and 

 their fossils ; and in the third he described the primary formations 

 and their remains, including those of the coal measures, in which 

 alone in this country fossil insects had been found. The Devonian 

 shales of New Brunswick were the oldest strata in the world in 

 which any traces of insect life had been discovered, none having 

 been found in the Silurian, Cambrian or Laurentian formations. 

 It was remarkable that until quite recently all the fossil insects 

 were referable to the existing orders, and often to known genera of 

 insects, the only exception being the singular Eugereon Bocklngii 

 of A. Dohrn, which exhibits the characters both of Hemiptera and 

 Neuroptera, and was thence considered by its describer as the 

 progenitor of those orders. To this insect have been added two 

 or three species from America, referred by Mr. Scudder to the 

 Neui'optera, one species from Belgium and several new ones 

 which have been formed into a separate order (Palseodictyoptera) 

 by Dr. Goldeuberg, in his 'Fauna Sarcepontana fossilis' (1877). 

 The writer considered from this fact that it was evident that the 

 geological record was not nearly old enough or perfect enough 

 to afford much direct evidence in support of the theory of Evo- 

 lution of insects of the existing orders from inferior organisms. 



