276 



ORTHOPTERA 



Some Insects said to belong to the genera Phasma and 

 Bacteria have been found in amber. A single Insect-fossil found 

 in the Tertiary strata in North America has recently been referred 



Fig. 163. — Titanophasma fayoli. Carboniferous formation at Commentry. xi. 

 (FromZittel.) 



by Scudder to the family, and even to a genus still existing in 

 the Xew World — Agathemera ; the fragment is, however, so 



defective, and the charac- 

 teristic points of the 

 Phasmidae are so little 

 evident in it, that not 

 much reliance can l)e 

 placed on the determina- 

 tion. No Phasmid has 

 been unearthed from 

 Mesozoic strata, so that, 

 with the exception of the 

 fragment just mentioned, 

 nothing that evidently 

 Ijelongs to the Phasmidae 

 has been discovered older 

 than the remains pre- 

 served in amber. In the Carboniferous layers of the Palaeozoic 

 epoch there are found remains of gigantic Insects that may 

 possibly be connected with our living Phasmidae. These fossils 

 have been treated by Brongniart and Scudder as forming a 

 distinct family called Protophasmidae. The first of these authors 

 says 1 that our Phasmidae were represented in the Carboniferous 

 I CB. Ac. Paris, xcviii. 1884, p. 832. 



Fig. 164. — Titanoplmsma fayoli (restoration). 

 •■•TTr- 



