PSYCHE 
Vol. 62 March, 1955 
No. 1 
HEALED WOUNDS AND GALLS ON 
FOSSIL LEAVES FROM THE WILCOX DEPOSITS 
(EOCENE) OF WESTERN TENNESSEE 
By H. K. Brooks 
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 
Introduction 
The specimens described herein are not the first evidence 
of insects to be reported from the Eocene deposits of 
Western Tennessee and the adjoining states of Alabama, 
Mississippi, Arkansas and Kentucky. Features produced 
by the activities of insects on fossil leaves have been de- 
scribed and figured by Berry (1916, 1928, 1930, and 1931). 
Collins (1925, p. 406) observes that “Insects must have 
been more or less plentiful at this time, as we find such 
evidence of them as fossil insect galls and caddis fly tubes, 
while leaves occasionally exhibit holes, galleries and ir- 
regular margins which are due in all probability to insect 
ravages.” 
The alleged evidence of insect activities, a termite wing 
described by Collins (1925), a wing of a large ponerine 
ant by Carpenter (1929) and the elytra of three species 
of beetles by Wickham (1929) are the only traces of 
arthropods reported from the Wilcox deposits of Tennessee 
and adjoining states. These deposits have yielded one of 
the best preserved early Tertiary floras of North America 
and it seems anomalous that arthropods should have left 
such a meager record. 
The caddis fly cases constructed of fragments of leaves 
are well preserved and have been well illustrated by Berry 
1 
