AMERICAN COLEOPTERA. 241 



Notes on some €OI.EOPTEK«»US REMAINS from the bone 

 cave at Port Kennedy, Penna. 



BY GEORGE H. HORN, M. D. 



In company with Prof. E. P. Cope, I visited Mr. C. M. Wheatley, 

 and made an examination of some masses of clay from which were 

 obtained many fragments of Coleoptera. These remains were of the 

 least destructible portions, and for the most part consisted of the 

 oricjinal chitinous material more or less altered, yet retaining in seve- 

 ral instances the surface sculpture. 



Shortly after my visit I gave to Mr. Wheatley a list of the species 

 as I had at that time determined them. Subsequent studies have 

 caused me to reduce the number and at the same time recall certain 

 names which I then gave. The reasons for this course will be given 

 further on. 



From the determinations of Messrs. Cope and Wheatley, the mam- 

 malian remains belong to the Post-Pliocene period, and geologically 

 speaking not far removed in the past, and in fact very strongly 

 connected with the present geological period, several of the verte- 

 brates being identical with those now living and others very closely 

 allied. 



Studies of the distribution of our Coleoptera have led to some 

 very curious results, which I think will bear out the supposition 

 that many existing species have come down to us from preceding 

 geological periods. Two species of Cicindela illustrate this supposi- 

 tion, one of them having been already fully dwelt upon by Dr. 

 Leconte, in his address before the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science, Detroit, 1875. The other species is lipemorr- 

 hagica which occurs on the sea coast of southwestern California, 

 extending thence in a northeasterly direction to Owen's Valley, and 

 following the extension of the Mojave desert reaches Nevada, and 

 finally the head waters of the Yellowstone, varying somewhat in 

 trifling characters in their extent of distribution. This also is the 

 border line of the Cretaceous gulf which gradually disappeared by the 

 rise of the land and the formation of fresh water lakes, until these in 

 turn gave place to the dry land now existing. It may be inferred 

 that these species, as well as others which might be mentioned, are 



TRANS. AMER. ENT. SOC. V. (31) ' DECEMBER, 1876. 



