FOSSIL INVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. 493 



The fossil Insects, to which the name of entomolites has 

 been given, are found either in amber or in fissile stones. The 

 first are perfectly preserved in all their parts, and even the 

 species may be recognised. In this substance flies have been 

 found, tipulae, ichneumons, ants, &c. M. de France men- 

 tions a piece of amber, about the thickness of one's thumb, 

 and somewhat flattish, in which twenty-eight insects were 

 distinctly to be seen, such as ants, tipulae, small coleoptera, and 

 a curculio, not of a species now existing in Europe. 



After storms, the amber, and the insects which it contains, 

 are found on the coasts of the Baltic Sea, and chiefly on those 

 of Pomerania and Prussia, and also on some shores of the 

 Mediterranean, such as those of the Marches of Ancona, of 

 Genoa, and of Sicily. 



This fossil resin is also found in the interior of the earth, in 

 Lithuania, in Poland, in Italy, and in Provence, near Sisteron. 

 It is usually in blackish sands, among fossilized wood, which 

 is either pyritous or bituminous. 



The insects which are met with in stones are not nearly so 

 well preserved as those in amber. The head, however, and 

 corslet may be distinctly observed, and often the body, divided 

 by rings. But it is difficult to ascertain whether these be per- 

 fect insects or merely larvae, or chrysalids of necroptera, which 

 live in the fresh water until their entire development takes 

 place. 



Some of these fossils are found accompanied by debris of 

 small shells ; and there is reason to believe that the catastrophe 

 which involved them took place in waters which had been tran- 

 quil, and where those larvae or chrysalids could have continued 

 to exist. 



Figures of these fossil insects may be seen in Knorr's work 

 on petrifactions, and in that of Scheuchzer. This last author 

 tells us of a libellula found with its wings in Monte Bolca, 

 a large scarabeus in a stone from CEningen, and a scolopen- 

 dra in a grey stone of Lubeck. 



