THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE II. VOL. V. 



No. X.— OCTOBER, 1878. 



OI^I(3-Il^^.A.IL -.^laTIOXjES. 



I. DiSCOVEKY OF THE EeMAINS OF A FoSSIL CrAB (DeCAPODA- 



Brachyura) in the Coal-Measures of the Environs of 

 MoNS, Belgium. 



By Henry Woodward, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., etc., 



of the British Museum. 



(PLATE XI.) 



A. PEEUDHOMME DE BOERE, the Conservator of the 

 ., Eoyal Museum of Natural History in Brussels, havino- 

 received, some time since, from M. Persenaire, the impression and 

 counterpart of the abdomen of a small Crustacean discovered in the 

 Coal-shales at the ' Belle-et-Bonne' Colliery, near Mons, he submitted 

 it to the inspection of the Entomological Society of Brussels at their 

 Monthly Meeting on 5th June, 1875. 



After carefully examining these impressions. Professor L. G. de 

 Koninck stated that in his opinion they certainly belonged to an 

 entirely new genus and to a species of Crustacean not hitherto known 

 from the Coal-measures. By his kindness, the fossil was afterwards 

 transmitted to me for examination, and, at his request, I drew up 

 the subjoined account of this very interesting and unique specimen, 

 which has since been communicated by Professor de Koninck to the 

 Eoyal Academy of Belgium.^ 



The Coal-measures have long been celebrated for the wonderful 

 assemblage of organic remains which they have yielded, an assem- 

 blage none the less interesting from the fact that some of these 

 remains represent groups of animals which belonged to the Palseozoic 

 period, and whose last representatives are found in the Carboniferous 

 formation, such as the genera Phillipsia and Eurypterus ; while 

 others, on the contrary, belong to the Neozoic period, and make their 

 first appearance on this horizon. 



Among these latter we may mention the first appearance of 

 Amphibia ; of Scorpions and Spiders ; of Myriapods ; of Orthoptera 

 (Locustid^, Mantid^, Blattida9) ; of Neuroptera ; and the first 

 Lobster-like Crustacean (Anthrapalcemon) . 



Other forms, characterizing at the same time the Palaeozoic and 

 the Neozoic periods, are equally well represented in the Carboniferous 

 formation. Of these, the genera PrestwicJiia and Bellinurus may be 



1 See the Bulletins de TAcademie Eoyal de Belgique, 2me s^rie, tome xlv No 4 

 Avril, 1878. ' " ' 



DECADE n. — VOL. T. — NO. X. - 28 



