OF WASHINGTON, VOLUME XV, 1913 127 



In further comment on Professor Cockerell's paper Mr. 

 Banks emphasized the importance of the amber insects and stated 

 that some of them which he had seen were in even better condition 

 than the modern museum specimens, referring mostly to the Psocids. 

 As an example of the fragmentary and unsatisfactory nature of 

 most Florissant fossils he commented on the recent description of a 

 Phryganeid by Professor Cockerell and stated that this family 

 could only be separated from the closely allied Limnophilidse by 

 the male palpi, which were not preserved. He also commented on 

 the value of the recent work on amber Trichoptera by Ulmer. 



Air. Banks added that in the fossil fauna of Florissant are groups 

 of insects which occur today only in warm countries, and also groups 

 which occur today only in cold countries. And he considered that 

 it is possible that in Miocene times one or the other of these groups 

 were accustomed to either a warmer or a cooler climate. For exam- 

 ple, if we collected 5500 species of insects around Washington we 

 would undoubtedly have some insects which belonged more properly 

 to the tropical or subtropical regions, viz., the wheel bug. To him 

 the most discouraging thing about fossils is that the story breaks off 

 just at the most important place and that if some could be discovered 

 which would bridge the gap between the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic 

 some interesting points might be obtained, for it was during this 

 long period that most of the orders had their beginning. 



Dr. Hopkins stated that he was much interested in Professor 

 Cockerell's remarks about the insects in Florissant deposits and 

 those of the interglacial clays. He added that he examined Scud- 

 der's types of Florissant Scolytidae and found that they were not 

 all Scolytids but that those which could be recognized as belonging 

 to this family appeared to belong to modern genera. He stated that 

 one species referred to by him in Psyche 1 under Hylesinus had 

 double eyes, but later he found that it belonged to another genus 

 not represented in America but with its nearest ally in the Philip- 

 pine Islands. He mentioned that he had examined Dr. Scudder's 

 famous fossil stick from the interglacial clays and that from the 

 gallery he had recognized the work of a Phloeosinus and sug- 

 gested that it was allied to a Pacific Coast species, and that Scudder 



1 A. D. Hopkins. American Fossil Coleoptera Referred to the Scolyti- 

 dae. Psyche, vol. 9, 1903, p. 64. 



