Scudder — Fossil Insects of North America, 221 



I have examined specimens from Bod No. 3, above ; perhaps, the 

 lower shales of No. 2, in which insect remains occur, belong pro2)erly 

 to No. 3. The fossils were brought from two localities, called, by 

 Professor Denton, Fossil Canon and Chagrin Valley ; they were 

 about sixty miles apart, but the rocks in both cases were the same. 

 From the specimens I have seen, I should judge that«the shales were 

 deposited at the edge of a fresh-water lake. 



Ninety specimens, embracing about sixty-five species, were 

 brought home ; many of the little slabs contain several species of 

 insects, but the remains are often too fragmentary and imperfectly 

 preserved for identification. Two-thirds of the species, and, at least, 

 three-fourths of the specimens, are dipterous; some of these are 

 stout, aquatic larvae, whose more advanced stages are not rej^resented 

 on the stones. The perfect Biptera are mostly MijcetojpMlidce and 

 TipuUdce ; there are also some small Coieoptera and a few Homoptera, 

 Eymenoptera, Lepidoptera, and Phjsopoda. The Homoptera are repre- 

 sented by species allied to Issus, Gypona, and Delphax; well 

 preserved specimens of Myrmica and Formica represent the Hymen- 

 optera. A poorly-preserved Moth, apparently a Noctuid, is the only 

 member of the Lepidoptera, unless one of the larvae prove to belong 

 to some genus resembling Limacodes. Perhaps the Physopod, 

 belonging to a group which has never been found fossil, is of the 

 greatest interest : it differs essentially from all of Heeger's illustra- 

 tions of this group. The abdomen is scarcely larger than the thorax ; 

 the veinless under wings are almost as long and — near the tip — quite 

 as broad as the upper wings. Both the upper and lower veins of the 

 upper wings are connected with the margin by cross-veins, which 

 occur, at about one-third and two-thirds of the distance, from the 

 base to the tip of the wing. The principal veins approach each other 

 near the centre of the wing, and are connected by a cross-vein. The 

 wing is heavily fringed with hairs, those on the under border — espe- 

 cially near the tip — being about three times the length of those on 

 the costal border ; there are a few hairs at the tip of the abdomen. 

 Several specimens of this insect are admirably preserved : although 

 its parts are so minute that the outline of the under wing can only 

 be determined by the microscopic hairs upon its border, the insect 

 can be completely restored from two or three individuals. I have 

 proposed for it the name of Falceotlirips fossils. 



The specimens from the two localities differ so completely as to 

 awaken the suspicion that the rocks of one locality may be older 

 than those of the other. In both places, Mycetopliilidce and other 

 Diptera are found, but, in Fossil Canon, the variety and abundance 

 are proportionately greater. The Ant, the Moth, the Thrips, and 

 nearly all the small Coleoptera are restricted to Fossil Canon, while 

 the larvae come from Chagrhi Valley. 



Perhaps no general conclusion can be drawn from this small 

 collection, particularly as there is a total absence of means of com- 

 paring it with fossil insects of a similar age in this country ; yet, 

 while it does not agree in the aggregation of species with any of 

 the insect-beds of England or Southern Europe, nor with those of 



