1880.] ' 179 



sented by Ohironomidce, TipulidoB, MycetopJiilidcB, AsilidcB, SyrphidcB, 

 and MuscidcE. The great majority of the Hymenoptera belong to the 

 Families, Formicidce, IclmemnonidcB, and Apidw ; and the 3 species of 

 Lepidoptera to the Bombycidce. 



When we consider that the Lepidoptera was undoubtedly the last 

 Order to appear, that the ffiuingen formations are more recent than 

 any of those (in Europe) from which butterflies have been discovered, 

 and that from them more fossil insects have been obtained than from 

 all the other localities put together, the rarity of Lepidoptera — the en- 

 tire absence of butterflies — is very remarkable.* 



Erom strata at Parschlug in Styria, belonging to the same division 

 of this Period, Dr. Heerf has enumerated 14 species of insects, viz., 

 Goleoptera (7), Neuroptera (1), Ortlioptera (2), Diptera (2), and 

 Hymenoptera (2). 



Numerous specimens of fossil insects were formerly obtained by 

 the E.ev. Y. W. Hope, Signor Massalongo, and others, from the famous 

 deposits of Senigallia, in the north-east of Italy, but, with the ex- 

 ception of two fossil larvae of LibellulidcsX none of them have, I 

 believe, ever been described. 



America.^ 



During the last twenty years several thousands of specimens of 

 fossil insects have been obtained by Prof. Denton, Mr. Richardson, 

 Mr. S. H. Scudder, Dr. F. V. Hayden, Mr. P. C. Bowditch, Dr. A. C. 

 Peale, Mrs. Charlotte Hill, and others, from Tertiary strata in various 

 localities in the United States, especially on the White River at Possil 

 Canon Utah ; in Chagrin Valley and Florissant, in Colorado ; and near 

 Green Eiver Station, in Wyoming. About 30 specimens have also 

 been obtained by Mr. G-eorge Dawson from Quesnel, British Columbia. 

 From these specimens, Mr. Scudder || has already described nearly 200 

 species, distributed amongst the Goleoptera, Neuroptera, Ortlioptera, 

 Semiptera, Diptera, Symenoptera, and Lepidoptera. The Goleoptera 



* See Mr. Scudder's remarks on this subject in his " Fossil Butterflies," Proc. Amer. Assoc, for 

 the Advancement of Science, p. 71, 1875. 



+ Recherches sur le climat, &o., antea cit., p. 197. 



t Studii Paleontologici, pp. 22 and 23, plate i, figs. 8—13. Verona, 1856. 



§ Mr. Scudder, to whom we are indebted for descriptions of all the fossil insects yet described 

 from the American Tertiariea, has not, in any case, stated whether the strata, from which the in- 

 sects have been obtained, belong to the Eocene, Miocene, or Pliocene Periods. From an examination 

 of the geological maps of the United States Geological and Geogi-aphical Survey it appears that the 

 strata, from which the insects were obtained, are, almost without exception, of Miocene Age. It 

 may be, however, that some few of the specimens were discovered in rocks of Eocene Age, and 

 should {therefore have been described ui the last paper ; but, in the absence of precise infor- 

 mation as to the horizons from which these fossils were obtained, I have thought it best to refer 

 to all the American Tertiary Iiisecta in one paper. 



II Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat Hist., x and xi ; Amer. Nat., i and vi ; Geol. Mag., v ; Bull. Geol. and 

 Geogr. Survey of the Territories, vol. ii. No. 1, 1876 ; vol. iii, No. 4, 1877 ; and vol. iv, Nos. 2 and 

 4, 1878; and " Report of Progress," Geol. Survey of Canada, 1875 — 1876, and 187(3 — 1877. Space 

 does not permit me to give a complete list of the Families and genera of the Insecta from 

 the American Tertiaries. An exhaustive work, by Mr. Scudder, containiug descriptions and 

 figures of all the known species from the American Tertiaries is about to be published by the 

 Geological and Geographical Surrey of the United States. 



