28 ME. H. BOLTON ON [vol. Ixxvii, 



Shropshire and adjacent counties. Dr. Kidston ^ has given the 

 name ' Radstockian ' to the Series which includes the Keele Grroup. 



I desire to express my indebtedness to Mr. T. C. Cantrill, who 

 collected the core-material, afterwards supplied me with information 

 concerning* the Keele Grroup, and checked my statements as to 

 the stratigraphy^ 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE I. 



Arcliimylacris i^ringlei, sp. nov. Wing- fragment and impression 

 magnified 4*8 diameters. 



Discussion. 



Dr. J. W. Eyans asked what was the earliest horizon at which 

 insect-remains were found, and whether they showed from the first 

 a variety of different types. 



Mr. E. E. L. Dixon congratulated the Author on his successful 

 determination of the affinities of the Blattoid. and Mr. Pringle on 

 having added another to his long list of "' caj^tures ' of Coal- 

 Measure arthropods. He contrasted the conformity that existed 

 between the Keele Grroup and the underlying part of the Coal 

 Measures with the unconformable relations of the Continental 

 Stephanian. and mentioned the difference between the correlation 

 of Dr. R. Kidston, who referred the Keele Group to the Stephanian, 

 and that of the late Dr. E. A. Newell Arber, who regarded the group 

 as the top of the West|Dhalian. Every piece of zonal evidence was, 

 therefore, important, and he enquired whether the degree of 

 specialization of the Wellington Blattoid had enabled the Author 

 to compare its age with those of Lievm, the age of which was 

 known. 



The AuTHOE thanked the Fellows for their kind reception of his 

 paper, and, in answer to Dr. J. "W. Evans, replied that some doubt 

 existed as to the earliest possible occurrence of fossil insects. 

 Brongniart had recorded the wing of a supposed Blattoid from the 

 Silurian, under the name of JPcdceohlattina clouvillei, though the 

 general opinion was that the structure was not of insect origin, but 

 in all probability a portion of a cephalic spine of a trilobite. Sir 

 J. W. Dawson recorded the existence of undoubted insect-remains 

 in the Fern Ledges of New Brunswick, and classed the deposits 

 as Devonian. The recent researches of Dr. Marie Stopes had, 

 however, shown that they were of Carboniferous as^e. 



Undoubted insect-remains have not as yet been recorded from 

 any rocks older than the Upper Carboniferous, where they appear 

 in considerable numbers. They show a degree of specialization 

 such as could hardly have been reached Avithout a lonsr ancestry. 

 This was especially true of the Blattoids, and for this reason the 

 Author believed that insect life must have first appeared at a much 



' 1 Q. J. G. S. vol. Ixi (1905) p. 319, 



