IXTKODIJCTION. 



5 



relative numbers of the Ourouliunid.T, which iierc, as in tlie living' fauna, 

 easily hold tlie fu-st ])lace. The other relative dilVercinees between the Ter- 

 tiary and existing- faunai^ in Anieriea are l)ut slight, the ('alandrida- of the 

 Tertiaries losing al)out as much as the Anthribi<l;e gain in relative numbers 

 when compared with the existing fauna. As compared w itii tin- Kuropean 

 Tertiary fauna the American shows the same excess in the relative num- 

 bers of Rhynchitida' and Otiorhynchida- as it does when compared with the 

 recent American fauna; but both the Curculionida' and tlu^ Scolytida' gain 

 in rehxtive importance in .tlie Euro})ean Tertiaries, whose chief peculiarity, 

 however, consists in the considera])le development of the small family 

 Byrsopida. The Rhinomacerida' an<l IJrenthida' alone, small groups, do not 

 occur in either Tertiary fauna, and the Attelabida' and liyrsopida- are also 

 absent from the American. 



To brinjr the differences to view in another wav and consider oidv the 

 families represented in the American Teitiary fauna, we ma} mark their 

 relative position in the scale of numl)ers as in the following- table: 



Relative importance of the families of Rhynchophora. 



Families. 



Rhynchitida? . 



Otiorhyiichida 

 Ciirriilioiii(l;i! 

 Calaiidrida- .. 



Scolytida- 



Aiithribida.- . . 



Place as to nambers. 



Reccut 

 Aiiicricau. 



Ko.ssil Ki)ssil 



Aiiicrieaii. Kiir<i|ii'uii. 



This shows by a different method the same fact: That the recent 

 American Rhynchophorous fauna agrees l>etter in its broad features witli 

 the Tertiarv fauna of Europe than with the Tertiary fauna of America. 



Of the G(i ol<l genera to which the fossil species of Rhynchophora are 

 here referred, including 13G of the 11)3 specie.s, G may be regarded as cos- 

 mopolitan or nearly so; lo as gerontogeic and especially European, though 

 often having a few American s]»ecies among them ; IG as characteristic of 

 the northern hemisphert! in general, while the reuniinder are aliout ei|ii;dly 



