INSECTA.
Char.—Body chitinous, articulated, with articulated and unci nated limbs ; head provided with jointed antennae ; respiratory system tracheal.
The fossil insects hitherto examined have afforded no new types or forms of unusual interest The oldest known, those from the lower coal measures, resemble the Curculionidce and Blattidce or Locu.stidce of the present day. The lies limestones have afforded a greater variety to the persevering skill of Mr. Brodie : species of the genera Berms, Elater, Gyrinus, Lacco philus, and Melolantha, and undetermined genera of the fami lies Carabicke, Bupresticke, Chrysainelidce, and Telephorick ; Panorpa-like insects of the genus Orthoph.lebia ; dragon-flies, Nepadce and Cimicidce, Cicada, and the dipterous genus Asilus. Next in age is the insect depository of the Stonesfield slate, which affords the large wing-covers of Buprestis Bucklancli, species of Primus and Coccinella, and the great neuropteran Hemerobioides. The Purbeck limestone has supplied, in addi tion, species of Cerylon and Colymbetes, Cyphon, Helophorus, and Limnius ; and examples of Staphylinid.ce, Cantharicke, Harpalicke, Hydrophilicke, and Tenebrionidce, Libellula and Phryganea, Acheta and Blatta, Aphis, Cercopis, and other Homoptera, and ten dipterous genera. In the newer pliocene fresh-water formations the recent Copris lunaris has been de tected, and the elytra of Donacia and Harpalus. The principal foreign sources of fossil insects have been the lithographic slates of Solenhofen, and the tertiary deposits of Aix in Pro vence, and Eningen, near Constance, on the Rhine. Remains
of species of Tinea and Sphinx are said to have been found in the lower Jura, and of a diurnal Lepidopteran in the Molasse. Numerous examples of insects in true amber have been ob tained, and much more abundantly in " gum animi," a more modern fossil resin. These are all unknown to entomologists, and are probably extinct, since no department of recent na tural history has been so closely worked, although the fossil insects have been comparatively neglected. It has been sug gested by Mr. Westwood that the lias insects have a sub alpine character, and may have been brought down by torrents from some higher region. But no attempt has been made to show whether these or any other group of fossil insects most nearly resemble those of any particular zoological province of the present day.
Much has been said of the " indusial limestone " of Au vergne, supposed to be built up of the fossilized cases of caddis worms (Phryganeidce); but Mr. Waterhouse, the only entomo logist who has visited the country and examined the formation, entertains doubts of the correctness of this interpretation.
Of the Myriapoda, 17 fossil species have been found, com mencing in the oolitic system. And of the Arachnids, 131 species are catalogued ; the earliest and most interesting of these is the fossil scorpion (Cyelopthalmus senior) of the Bohemian coal measures (figured in Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise). Fossil spiders are found in the Solenhofen slates and in the tertiary marls of Aix.