590 ^ CENTURY OF PROGRESS IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 



At present our knowledge of Tertiary insects exceeds that of any other past 

 geological period; that of the Permian is the next best known. Most needed, 

 therefore, are collections from other periods, especially the Cretaceous, which is 

 almost a blank, so far as insects are concerned. Eevisional studies of previously 

 described material by specialists in certain orders are also needed, as well as 

 investigations on unworked material. The most extensive collection of fossil 

 insects, comprising about 60,000 specimens (including the Scudder Collection), 

 is contained in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Other important collections 

 are in the British Museum (Natural History), the Institute of Palaeontology in 

 Moscow, the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, in Paris, and the United 

 States National Museum. The collection of amber insects, formerly housed in 

 Albertus University at Konigsberg and including about 100,000 specimens, was 

 destroyed during the Second World War. 



