THE FOSSIL INSECTS OF THE BRITISH COAL 



MEASURES. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The first recorded Palaeozoic insect of any country appears to have been a 

 British specimen, Lithdsialis brongniarti (Mantel!), which was discovered in the 

 Coal Measures of Coalhrookdale in the early part of last century. It was sent by 

 Mantell to Brongniart as a leaf impression. Brongniart in turn submitted the 

 fossil to Mons. Audouin, who (1833, Audouin, 'Ann. Soe. Ent. France/ ii, Bull., 

 p. 7) described it as " d'un insecte inconnu," and allied to the Hemerobiidae, Semblis, 

 and especially to Corydalis and Mantis. The specimen was afterwards figured and 

 named by Mantell (1854, ' Medals of Creation,' vol. ii, p. 57-5, fig. 2). 



According to Parkinson, however, Lhuyd first recognised fossil insects in the 

 British Coal ^leisures. Parkinson (' Organic Remains,' vol. iii, p. 258, 1804 — 1811) 

 states that Lhuyd in a postscript to a letter to Dr. Richardson wrote as follows : 

 " Scripsi olim suspicari me Araneorum quorundam icones, una cum lithophytis, 

 in schisto carbonario observasse ; hoc jam ulteriore experientia edoctus aperte 

 assero. Alias icones habeo, qua? ad Scarabosorum genus quam proxime accedunt. 

 In posterum ergo non tantum Lithophyta, sed et quredam insecta in hoc lapide 

 investigare conabimur." (' Lithophylacii,' p. 113.) 



["I have formerly written that I believed I had observed certain impressions of 

 spiders identical with Lithophytes in carbonaceous shales ; this I now, taught by 

 later experience, openly assert. I have other impressions wdiich approach nearest 

 to the family of beetles. For the future, therefore, we will endeavour to investi- 

 gate not only Lithophyta, but also certain insects in these shales." 



Parkinson reprints four figures given by Lhuyd in his ' Iconograph,' tab. 4. 

 Two of these figures show eight legs and must therefore represent the remains of 

 Arachnids. None of the figures show wing-structure. 



Interest in the occurrence of fossil insects was stimulated in 1837 by the 

 publication of Dean Buckland's 'Bridgewater Treatise' on Geology, in which he 

 described and figured two fossils found at Coalhrookdale by Mr. Anstice (1837, 

 Buckland, ' Geology and Mineralogy,' 2nd ed., vol. ii, p. 76). He determined both 

 specimens to be the remains of coleopterous insects — a determination since 

 corrected by H. Woodward (1871, ' Geol. Mag.,' vol. viii, p. 380, pi. xi), by 

 Scudder, and finally by Pocock, who referred them to the Arachnida (" Terrestrial 

 Carboniferous Arachnida," ' Mon. Pal. Soc.,' 1911, pp. 39, 77). 

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