APHIDES IN THE LOWER MIOCENE. 153 



There are, nevertheless, many indirect indications of 

 the presence of Aphides in early Miocene times. Then 

 the gad-fly was present to scare the Ki^-parion 

 gracile, the representative of our modern horse ; and 

 bright aphidivorous Syrphida3 glanced and hovered in 

 the sunny glades of those forests, just as they do now 

 with us. There are also evidences of the existence of 

 many plants through the presence of such insects as 

 are believed to confine themselves to particular kinds 

 of vegetable food. From insects obtained from the 

 Swiss Miocene, the occurrence of such genera as 

 Myosotis, Pubus, Echium, Carduus, Trifolium, and 

 others may be inferred. All these plants now afford food 

 for special Aphides, and they may have done so then. 



With reference to this period, Prof. Heer says some 

 insects climbed to the summits of trees, as with us, to 

 obtain honey-dew from the colonies of Aphides settled 

 there. . . . Great Cicadas hid themselves in the 

 dense canopy of leaves, and filled the air with their 

 monotonous chirping. . . . Gigantic water-beetles, 

 and Hemiptera of different genera, by their presence 

 give weight to the probability that the climate of 

 (Eningen was in late Miocene times of a warm, tem- 

 perate, or possibly of a semi-tropical description. He 

 suggests that at this period a broad arm of the 

 sea passed from the Rhone Valley through Berne, 

 (Eningen, and Vienna ; and thence it widened out as 

 it stretched towards Belgrade and the Euxine Sea. 

 Fresh-water rivers poured their contents into the 

 basins of (Eningen and Pacloboj, the water being more 

 or less loaded with the remains of the animals then 

 living in these districts. 



Probably in Miocene times the tract now occupied 

 by the Baltic was dry land. This district is the father- 

 land of much of the amber of commerce, fine speci- 

 mens of which adorn the museums of Koniofsberof, 

 Danzig, and Berlin. The Aphides entombed in these 

 masses of fossil resin show the antiquity of the 

 family, and its early appearance in Northern Europe. 



