WICKHAM: fossil ELATERIDAE of FLORISSANT. 497 



Making some comparisons with the recent Elateridae of Colorado, 

 we find recorded in the catalogue of the beetles of that state about 

 seventy-three species, three of which are Eucneminae, leaving seventy 

 in the Elaterinae. Of these, three are Agr^-pnini, three Chalcole- 

 pidiini (a tribe not represented among oiu- fossils and containing large 

 species rather tropical than otherwise in their general range, though the 

 Colorado representatives are of the genus Alaus which runs well to the 

 north) while the rest, sixty-four in number, are Elaterini. These 

 Elaterini are divided into twenty-nine which belong to the subtribe 

 Elaterini proper and thirty-five to the Corymbitini, a moderate 

 divergence from the ratio shown at Florissant in the Miocene. If 

 we may depend upon these figures, the evidence indicates a rather 

 remarkable similarity in conditions then and now. 



Two or three items of generic comparison deserve notice. In 

 looking over the fossils I was surprised to find such an apparent rich- 

 ness in Cardiophorus; but turning to the Colorado catalogue it will 

 be noted that Cardiophorus now has no less than eight representatives 

 in the state, against the five known as fossils. Here again, the two 

 ratios are remarkable for their similarity. Of the genus Corymbites, 

 we find sixteen recent Colorado species against five fossils — indi- 

 cating that this genus, relatively to the other Corymbitini, was only 

 half as numerously represented then as at present. Of the twenty-one 

 genera included in the entire list of fossils, nine are not now known 

 from Colorado ; two of these are erected as new, four others are fairly 

 distinctively northern and none of the three remaining can be con- 

 sidered southern types. In fact, there is nothing in the fossil Elateri- 

 dae to indicate tropical or subtropical conditions or origin. 



Something should be said regarding the facies of this collection of 

 Elateridae. On looking through the list, one will be struck at once 

 by the fact that it is made up, in the main, of species belonging to 

 large and well-known genera, mostly those of wide distribution. 

 Even if we allow that the preservation of fossil beetles is practically 

 never good enough to permit absolute certainty in generic identifica- 

 tion, it remains true that these Florissant Elateridae do not, even in a 

 single instance, exhibit anything conspicuous or remarkable in size or 

 form. This family, today, is by no means without peculiar and 

 highly modified members, some of them reaching great size, others 

 displaying oddities in outline or in the development of various por- 

 tions of the body, as will be seen in glancing over the plates in the 

 extensive monograph of Candeze. We are forced here, to the same 

 conclusion as in so manv of the other families — that the Florissant 



