OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. . 135 



viduals from Florissant one is a larva. The scarcity of such forms, 

 whether in amber or lacustrine deposits, is easily explained by the 

 habit of life of these creatures. 



The very presence of so considerable a number of Termitina 

 (twenty-six specimens, six species*) in the Florissant beds is indica- 

 tive of a much warmer climate formerly than the locality now enjoys. 

 Only three species of white ants, and of these only one belonging to 

 the section with branched scapular vein, have been recorded from the 

 United States north of the Gulf margin, excepting on the Pacific 

 coast, where one or two more extend as far nortli as San Francisco. 

 Yet seventeen species in all are recorded from North America by 

 Hagen in 18G1, and some have since been added to tlie list; while 

 his South American list (nearly all from Brazil) includes thirty-one 

 species, of which five are repeated from the North American list. 

 Florissant is situated in 39° N. Lat., and Hagen says that the family 

 only rarely (weniff), and that only- in the Northern hemisphere, ex- 

 tends beyond the fortieth degree of latitude. One species occurs as 

 far north as Manitoba. 



TABLE OF GENERA. 



Scapular vein branched. 



Submarginal vein present Parotermes. 



Submarginal vein absent ... - Hodotcrmes. 



Scapular vein unbranched Eulcrmcs, 



PAROTERMES nov. gen. (Trapo?, Termes, nom. gen.) 



Head rather large, short-oval in form, almost as broad anteriorly 

 as posteriorly, well rounded behind; eyes small, ocelli wanting; an- 

 tennas longer than the head, but shorter than the head and prothorax, 

 slender, perhaps slightly broader in the middle than at either end, 

 composed of about twenty equal joints, shorter than broad. Protho- 

 rax from a half to a third as long as the head, narrower than or only 

 as broad as it, broader in front than behind, subquadrate, with the 

 hinder angles rounded off. Wings slender and straight, subequal, less 

 than half as long again as the body, four times as long as broad ; basal 

 scale obscure in most specimens examined, moderately large, as long as 

 the prothorax, its costal margin convex ; costal margin of wing straight 

 nearly to the tip, which tapers to a well-rounded point ; marginal and 



* According to Hagen (Linn. Ent., XII. 244), no locality in the world has 

 yielded more than nine species of living types ; thev so rarely number more 

 than four, that he had formerly indicated tliis as tlie limit, so far as known. 



