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Fossil Insects

documentary heritage
  • Description

    Group of display photographs of Insect fossils photographed by William C. Davies, Cawthron Institute. A selection were exhibited at the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain 1930-

  • Other Id

    PH-2012-22 (Reference Number)

    32743 (Presto content ID)

    PH-RESOS-266 (Previous Reference Number)

    QE831 Size 2 (Library of Congress Call Number)

    101485 (DBTextworks system ID)

  • Department

    Photography

Images and documents

Catalogue

  • Object Type

    photograph

  • Name/Title
    Fossil Insects
  • Primary Maker

     William Davies (Photographer)

  • Date
    1930
  • Physical Description

    28x34cm print; 40x50cm mount card

  • Level of Current Record
    Parent
  • Media

    paper (fiber product)

    mounting board/cardboard/pasteboard/paper (fiber product)

  • Technique

    Gelatin silver print

    Silver print

    Monochrome photographic print

    Photographic techniques

  • Subject Category

    Insects, Fossils

    Paleontology--Carboniferous

  • Provenance Details
    Cawthron Institute, Nelson. Transferred from Entomology collection, Auckland Museum, November 2012
  • Content
    1. Fossil wing of an insect ancestral to the modern cicada Mesogereon Superbum Tillyard. From the upper Trias of Ipswich Queensland. This wing is about 2 inches in length
    2.Portion of a wing of Mesogereon superbum. (X21) [Duplicate copy damaged]
    3. Wing of Mesogereon superbum. X7. (An ancestor of the Cicada) from Upper Trias., Ipswich, Queensland
    4.Dunbaria fasciipennis. Till. (X6) A giant insect from the Lower Permian Kansas. [Accepted and hung at the exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain 1930]
    5.Eggs of the Cinnabar Moth (Tyria jacobaeae) on leaf of Ragwort. [Accepted and hung at the exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain 1930]
    6.Dunbaria fasciipennis. Till. (X6) A giant insect from the Lower Permian Kansas. [Accepted and hung at the exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain 1930] [water and mould damage]
    7.Dunbaria fasciipennis. Till. (X6) A giant insect from the Lower Permian Kansas.
  • Public Access Text

    Fossil Insects. The earlier known insects come from the carboniferous rocks. They already possessed highly developed wings, and were capable of sustained flight. Their advanced grade of structure implies a long previous history extending back to early Devonian or possibly even Silurian times.

    The ancestral stock of the Insect must have been of aquatic habit and crustacean affinity, the fancy of phylogenists therefore turns naturally, and not without reason, to Trilobita for their ultimate source.

    Though the known insects from the carboniferous cannot be placed in any of the existing orders they provide conditions from which the latter could have been derived.

    One of these ancient insects is illustrated below.

    Certain of these Palaeodictyopterid insects as they are termed, exhibited modifications which foreshadowed the May flies, the Locusts, the cockroaches and the dragonflies respectively. This last named was the largest insect known, for it had a stretch of two feet from tip to tip of the wings. [label accompanying the exhibition]

  • Copyright
    All rights reserved
  • Last Update
    23 Jun 2023
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