Reports and Proceedings — Geologists' Association. 135 



vestigations in the United Kingdom of Dr. Henry Woodward, F.E.S., 

 the Eev. P. B. Brodie, Prof. Westwood, the Eev. Osmond Fisher, and 

 others, Mr. Goss observed that the majority of the fossil insects from 

 British strata of the Secondary period had been obtained from 

 the Upper Oolite (Purbecks) and from the Lias, and that nearly all 

 the European specimens had been discovered in the Solenhofen slate 

 of Bavaria, or in the Lias of the Swiss Alps. Allusion was made to 

 the difierence in the state of preservation of insects from British 

 strata of this period as compared with that of those from the Solen- 

 hofen slate, and the probable reasons for this difference in the state 

 of preservation were stated. The names of the principal discoverers 

 and students of fossil insects from Secondary rocks on the Con- 

 tinent of Europe, including those of Professor Germar, Count 

 Miinster, Dr. Hagen, Professor Heer, Dr. Giebel, etc., were then 

 mentioned, and Mr. S. H. Scudder was referred to as the chief 

 worker in America. 



The various strata of this period, both in the United Kingdom 

 and on the Continents of Europe and America, in which fossil 

 insects had been detected, were then enumerated in the descending 

 order of geological succession. 



It appeared that a few insect-remains had been obtained from the 

 Weald Clay and Hastings Sands, and a great number from the 

 Purbeck strata of Dorsetshire, Wiltshire, and Buckinghamshire, 

 especially from those of the first-named county. The species which 

 had been identified belonged to the orders Coleoptera, Oi-thoptera, 

 Neuroptera, Hemiptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera, and more than 

 half of those from the Dorset Purbecks belonged to the first-named 

 order. The Pui-beck species appear as a rule to be closely allied to 

 existing forms, and the small size of the majority of them was, in 

 the opinion of Professor Westwood, indicative of a tempei'ate climate ; 

 but from the nature of the remains of other orders of animals, and 

 of the plants from these strata, the prevalence of such a climate 

 during this period seemed improbable. 



A few Elytra of Coleoptera were recorded from the Kimmeridge 

 Clay, the Forest Marble and the Great Oolite, and the remains of 

 one insect, which Professor Westwood thought might be referred to 

 a larva of LibelMa, had been found in the Oxford Clay. The 

 remains from the Stonesfield slate were principally Elytra of Coleo- 

 ptera, but they also included a few Neuroptera and two doubtful 

 specimens of Lepidoptera. One of the supposed Lepidoptera (which 

 had been described and figured by Mr. A. G. Butler, and named by 

 him Palceontina Oolitica) was considered by Mr. Scudder to be 

 Eomopteroiis rather than Lepidopteroiis, and allied to Cicada. 



A great quantity of insect-remains had been obtained from the 

 Lias and Rhsetics, but they were generally in such a fragmentary 

 condition that the bulk of them could not be identified. About 56 

 species had been determined, and they had been referred by West- 

 wood and Brodie to the orders Coleoptera (29 species), Neuroptera 

 (12 species), Orthoptera (7 species), Hemiptera (6 species), and 

 Diptera (2 species) ; but no traces of Hymenoptera or Lepidoptera 



