OP ARTS AND SCIENCES. 133 



lY. 



THE FOSSIL WHITE ANTS OF COLORADO. 



By Samuel H. Scudder. 



Presented October 10, 1S83. 



The family of Termitina is represented in the tertiaries of Europe 

 by twenty-nine nominal species, Hagen, however, asserts that sev- 

 eral of those purporting to come from amber are in reality copal spe- 

 cies ; and this, with synonyms and sjoecies merely nominal, reduces 

 the actual number to seventeen. It is doubtful if one of these, T. 

 Peccance Massal., is a Termes at all, and if it is, its position cannot 

 be further defined. Tlie number may therefore be considered sixteen ; 

 besides this, a species has been indicated without name from the Eng- 

 lish tertiaries. 



Of these sixteen, six come from amber, belonofinof to three cenera 

 (Calotermes, two species, Termopsis three and Termes one) ; six from 

 Radoboj, also of three genera (Ilodotermes two species, Termes two, 

 and Eutermes two) ; and three from Oeningen, of two genera (Hodo- 

 termes two species, Termes one — the same as found at Radoboj). 

 Besides these, there is a Calotermes from Rott, and a Ilodotermes 

 from Schossnitz. 



The section comprising the genera having a branched scapular vein 

 is therefore represented by eleven species (Calotermes three, Ter- 

 mopsis three — from amber only, Ilodotermes five); while the sec- 

 tion with simple scapular has only five species (Termes three, Euter- 

 mes two). The nominal and doubtful species (and, it might be 

 added, most of the synonyms) fall into the latter section, and should 

 doubtless increase it somewhat. As it stands, the first section has two 

 thirds of the fossil species. 



Thirteen of these sixteen species are entered in Hagen's Monocjra- 

 phie der Termiten ; the others have since been published ; and it is 

 noteworthy that of the eighty-four modern species contained in this 

 monograph, fifty-five, or nearly two thirds, belong to the second sec- 

 tion ; in other words, only thirty-one per cent of the tertiary, but 

 sixty-five per cent of the recent species, belong to the second section. 



