202 TERTIARY INSECTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



ForficularifE, though the European species have been very imperfectly pre- 

 sented as yet. Perhaps the most marked pecuharities in the American 

 fauna as distinguished from the European are the abundance of Forficu- 

 larise of a common type, the occurrence of Conocephalidfe, and the absence 

 of Mantides, Tettigidse, Decticidje, and the burrowing as well as the slender 

 Gryllides. 



As a whole the Orthoptera of Florissant and the Green River deposits 

 indicate a warmer, not infrequently in specific cases a much warmer, cli- 

 mate than now appertains to that region, though this is true to a less degree 

 of the saltatorial Orthoptera in general than of the others. (July, 1884.) 



It is not a little surprising to find so many American species, no less 

 than eleven being already obtained from Florissant, a number more than 

 double that of the European Tertiary species, and all apparently belonging 

 to one type, not now in existence. It is not impossible that a nearer study 

 of the European fossil species may prove that they also belong here, as one 

 may notice in them the same simplicity in the character of the forceps. 



Some of the Florissant species are of very large size, much larger than 

 any which are found in temperate regions, and the presence of this t3'pe in 

 such abundance, and represented in part by such gigantic forms, is a clear 

 witness to a considerably warmer climate than now obtains in the same 

 region even at the level of the lower plains. 



Family FORFICULARI^e Latreille. . 



Fossil earwigs are not unknown, but have been imperfectly studied. 

 Heer gives wood-cuts of two, Forficula recta, which he compares with 

 Forcinella annulipes (Luc.) Uohrn, and F. primigenia, compared with the 

 common earwig, i. e., Forficula auricularia Linn ; he also mentions a third, 

 F. minixta, compared with Labia minor (Linn.) Leach. These all come from 

 the Miocene of Oeningen.^ Long ago Serres spoke of a species allied to 

 Forficula parallela Fabr. and F. auricularia Linn, (both the same species), 

 of which many specimens had been found at Aix in Provence.^ Perhaps 

 Mr. Oustalet, when he resumes again the publication of his memoirs on the 

 fossil insects of southern France, will acquaint us more perfectly with this 

 insect; but I saw no specimens of Forficularise in his hands in 1873. One, 



' Heer, Urwelt iler Schweiz, 2d edition, p. 392, figs. 267, 268. 

 -Serree, G^ognonie des terraius tertiaires, 225 



