FOSSIL INSECTS. 
409 
SECTION IV. 
Fourth Class of Articulated Animals. 
FOSSIL INSECTS.* 
Although the numerical amount of living In- 
sects forms so vast a majority of the inhabitants 
of the present land, few traces of this large class 
of Articulated animals have yet been discovered 
in a fossil state. This may probably result from 
the circumstance, that the greatest portion of 
fossil animal remains are derived from the inha- 
bitants of salt ivater, a medium in which only 
one or two species of Insects are now supposed 
to live. 
Had no indications of Insects been discovered 
in a fossil state, the presence in any strata, of 
Scorpions or Spiders, both belonging to families 
Constructed to feed on Insects, would have af- 
forded a strong a priori argument, in favour of 
the probability, of the contemporaneous exis- 
tence of that very numerous class of animals, 
''^hich now forms the prey of the Arachnidans. 
This probability has been recently confinned by 
the discovery of two Coleoptera of the family 
f^urculionidte in the Iron-stone of Coalbrook 
See PL 46". Figs. 1. 2. & 4.— II. 
