1854.] WESTWOOD — FOSSIL INSECTS. 379 



a few doubtful specimens by W. R. Brodie, Esq., in the Wealden series 

 of Punfield Bay (Swanage), and in the Tertiaries of Studland Bay, — 

 and by still larger collections of fossil insects from the Middle and 

 Lower Purbecks by the Geological Surveyors, the Rev. Mr. Fisher, 

 Messrs. "W. R. Brodie and C. Willcox, Capt. Woodley, and especially 

 by the Rev. P. B. Brodie*, who, from his attention having been 

 especially directed to this branch of the subject, has been highly 

 successful in detecting minute fragments of insect remains in small 

 slabs of stone, which would to a less educated eye have been passed 

 over as destitute of any traces of ancient animal life. 



Several of these collections having been placed in my hands for 

 examination and description, I have endeavoured in the five accom- 

 panying Plates (PI. XIV.-XVIII.) to give a general idea of the 

 chief remains contained therein ; but the very fragmentary nature of 

 the specimens (of which, it will be observed, there is not one entire, 

 and not a single leg, antenna, or any trophi, — the majority, in fact, 

 consisting only of elytra or fragments of wings and elytra) will prevent 

 me from giving more than a very general description. This is the 

 more to be regretted, since amongst the fragments of wings there are 

 evidently portions belonging to forms distinct from any with which 

 we are now acquainted, and which from their analogy would lead 

 to the inference that they belonged to some forms of Neuropterous 

 insects allied to Sialis, Semblis, &c., genera which are more or less 

 aquatic in their natural habits ;— an inference more strengthened by 

 the prevalence of great numbers of Libellulideous wings in these col- 

 lections (the early states of the insects of which family, I need scarcely 

 observe, are also entirely aquatic), and by the many and great blanks 

 now existing in the series of the OxAe^v Neiiroptera, doubtlessly attri- 

 butable to the extinction of some of the connecting links. 



In the following observations it will, perhaps, be most convenient 

 to describe the collections according to their localities and owners ; 

 reserving the general observations which are suggested by their re- 

 view, including a comparison of the Middle with the Lower Purbeck 

 insects, as well as of the Purbeck insects of Dorset with those of the 

 Wiltshire Purbecks f, to the end of the communication. 



The reader will bear in mind that in the Plates the lines drawn 

 by the side of the different figures represent their natural length ; 

 the majority of the specimens being of minute size. 



L Fossil Beetle from the Stonesfield Slate J. 

 PI. XIV. fig. 13. 



A fragment of a large fossil Beetle, discovered in the Stonesfield 

 Slate by Lord Enniskillen, has been kindly placed in my hands for 



remains from the Lias of Lyme Regis. A fossil insect has heen lately met with in 

 the Great Oolite of Lincolnshire by Mr. Morris, F.G.S. See also ' Catalogue of 

 British Fossils,' new edit. p. 116, for fossil insects found in Britain. 



* In the Quart. Journ, Geol. Soc. vol. ix. p. 51, Mr. Brodie has also recorded his 

 discovery of a coleopterous wing-case in the Kimnieridge Clay of Ringstead Bay, 

 Dorsetshire. t Termed ' Wealden ' in ' History of Fossil Insects,' &c. 



X Four species and numerous relics of insects from the Great Oolite of Stones- 

 field, &c. are noticed in ' Morris's Catalogue,' 2nd edit. 



