PROCEEDINGS. 1917 23 



Coleoptera — Carabidae, 1 ; Nitidulidae, 1 : Tenebriondidae, 1 ; 

 Elateridae, 5; Buprestidae. 3; Hydrophylidae, 1; Chrysomelidae, 3; 

 Scaral)aeidae, 1 ; Coleoptera incertae sedis, 3. 



Hymenoptera — Ichneumonidae, Pimplinae, 4; Braconidae, 2; For- 

 micidae, 3. 



Neuroptera — Hemerobiidae, 1. 



Diptera — Orthorrhapha nematocera. Mycetophilidae, 5 ; Bibionidae, 

 about 35 ; Ptychopteridae, 1 ; Chironomidae, several ; Tipulidae, 2 ; 

 Orthorrapha brachycera, Asilidae, 1 : Empidae, 1 ; Dolichopodidae, I ; 

 Cyclorrhapha-Borboridae (Acalyptrate Muscidae), 5; Anthomyiidae, 2. 



Hemiptera — Gerridae, 2 ; Pentatomidae. 2. 



Homoptera — Fulgoridae, 1 (? 2); Cercopidae. 12; Aphididae. 2 

 ( incerta sedis, 1 ). 



Insecta incerta sedis, 7. 



With such a small number of species as have been found, it is diffi- 

 cult to judge accurately the age of the given deposits. Handlirsch argues 

 that since no representatives of the latest and most highly specialized 

 insects have been found, the deposits belong to the early Tertiary. For 

 instance, the .\phididae. Muscidae, Syrphidae, Rhynchophora, Cecido- 

 myiidae, Lepidoptera, Thysanoptera, Termitidae, Forficulidae, Chal- 

 cididae, etc., are either absent or only feebly represented, and likewise 

 the Lamellicorns and Formicidae. All these groups have doubtless 

 persisted since the Cretaceous. Nevertheless, in the early Tertiary 

 they did not for a long time attain that pre-eminence for which they 

 were noted in the late Tertiary, the Quaternary, and especially in recent 

 times, where they are distinctly dominant forms. In the early Tertiary 

 they were certainly also well represented in British Columbia, and, if 

 they are lacking in the collections, this fact must in part be attributed to 

 accident, and in part to their still meagre numerical development at that 

 time. Moreover, this fact may also be accepted as proof of the relatively 

 great age of the beds in question. A further argument of perhaps greater 

 significance, rests on the relatively strong representation of groups of Old- 

 world forms, as, for example, the Elateridae and Buprestididae (which 

 were numerous even in the Lias) ; the species of the genus Pimpla, 

 belonging to the most primitive apocrite Hymenoptera ; the Cercopidae, 

 which are also of Jurassic age ; also a form of Acridiidae, which does not 

 strictly coincide with any of the recent sub-groups ; a Rhaphidian in 

 which are found characters of both existing genera of this order, and, 

 finally, a very primitive Ptychopterid, the representative of a family 

 existing today in a few surviving forms. 



The Diptera clearly furnish the most reliable data. Of these forms, 

 the nematocerous Orthorrhapha with their eucephalous larvae, also the 

 above-mentioned ptychopterid, as well as the Chironomids, Myceto- 



