386 Dawson — On Palceozoic Insects. 



group of EpJiemerina (day-flies, shad-flies) among the Neuroptera, 

 and has named it Haplophlebium Barnesii. It must have been a very 

 large insect — seven inches in expanse of wing — and, therefore, much 

 exceeding any living species of this group. When we consider that 

 the larvse of such creatures inhabit the water, and delight in muddy 

 bottoms rich in vegetable matter, we can easily understand that the 

 swamps and creeks of Carboniferous Acadia, with its probable mild 

 and equable climate, must have been especially favourable to such 

 creatures, and we can imagine the larv^ of these gigantic Ephemeras 

 swarming on the deep black mud of the ponds in these swamps, and 

 furnishing a great part of the food of the fishes inhabiting them, 

 while the perfect insects, emerging from the waters to enjoy their 

 brief space of aerial life, would flit in millions over the quiet pools 

 and through the dense thickets of the Coal-swamps. Mr. Scudder 

 describes the species as follows : — 



Haplophlebium Barnesii, Scudder (Plate XVII. Fig. 1). — This is 

 probably one of the EpJiemerina, though it differs very much from 

 any with which I am acquainted. The neuration is exceedingly 

 simple, and the intercostal spaces appear to be completely filled with, 

 minute reticulations without any cross-veins. The narrowness of 

 the wing is very peculiar for an EpJiemeron. The form of the wing 

 and its reticulation remind me of the Odonata, but the mode of vena- 

 tion is very different ; yet there is apparently a cross-vein between 

 the first and second veins in the photograph (not rendered in the 

 cut) which, extending down to the third vein, occurs just where the 

 " nodus " is found in Odonata, and if present would, unquestionably, 

 remove this insecct to a new synthetic family between Odonata and 

 EpJiemerina. I cannot judge satisfactorily whether it is an upper or 

 an under wing. The insect measured fully seven inches in expanse 

 of wings — much larger than any living species of EpJiemerina. 



2. Devonian Insects. — The only known remains of insects of this 

 age are the wings of four species found by Mr. C. F. Hartt, in the 

 plant-bearing Devonian Shales of St. John, New Brunswick. The 

 figures now given of these remains, taken from drawings made by 

 Mr. Scudder, though they represent fragmentary specimens only, are 

 of the highest interest, as the most ancient remains of insects known 

 to us, and contemporary with the oldest known land flora ; their age 

 being probably about that of the Hamilton or Chemung formations 

 of New York. 



Their geological date is unquestionable, since they are found in 

 beds richly stored with species of Devonian plants, and unconform- 

 ably underlying the oldest portion of the Carboniferous series. 

 These beds are fully described in a paper by Mr. Matthew, in 

 the " Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London," and 

 also in Professor Bailey's " Eeport on the Geology of Southern New 

 Brunswick" — "Appendix A, on the Devonian Plant locality of 

 Lancaster, by Mr. C. F. Hartt." 



These insects, it will be observed, are of older date than the Car- 

 boniferous species previously noticed, and they bore the same relations 

 to the land and the water of the Devonian which the former did to 



