INSECTS IN SIXJONDARY AND TERTIARY STRATA. 411 
restrial vegetables which have produced the beds 
of Coal. 
The existence of the wing-covers of Insects 
in the Secondary Series, in the Oolitic slate of 
Stonesfield, has been long known ; these are all 
Coleopterous, and in the opinion of Mr. Curtis 
many of them approach most nearly to the Bu- 
prestis, a genus now most abundant in warm 
latitudes. (See PI. 46'. Figs. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.)* 
Count Munster has in his collection twenty- 
five species of fossil Insects, found in the Jurassic 
Limestone of Solenhofen ; among these are live 
species of the existing Family of Libellula, (See 
* M. Aug. Odier has ascertained, that the Elytra and other 
parts of the horny covering of insects, contain the peculiar sub- 
stance Chitine, or Ely trine, which approaches nearly to the ve- 
getable principle Ligjiine ; these parts of Insects burn without 
fusion, or swelling, like horn, and without the smell of animal 
matter; they also leave a Coal which retains their form. 
M. Odier found that even the hairs of a Scarabceus nasicornis 
retained their form after burning, and therefore concludes that 
they are different from the hairs of vertebral animals. This cir- 
cumstance explains the preservation of the hairs on the horny 
cover of the Bohemian Scorpion. 
He ascertained also that the Sinews (Nervures) of Scarabsei, 
are composed of Chitine, and that the soft flexible laminae of the 
shell of a crab, which remain after the separation of the Lime, 
also contain Chitine. 
Cuvier observes, that the Integuments of Entomostracans, are 
rather horny than calcareous, and that in this respect they approx- 
imate to the nature of Insects and Arachnidans. See Zoological 
Journal. London, 1825, vol. i. p. 101. 
