93 



According to Dr. Heer and M. Oiistalet the majority of 

 the (Eningen species belong to genera distributed at the present 

 ••day over the Old and New World, and these genera ai'c said to 

 •contain nearly two-thirds of the total number of species di.s- 

 .«overed in these strata. Heer estimates the proportion which 

 these genera bear to the total number of genera to be 111 to 

 ISO. Amongst the other genera, according to M. Oustalet, two 

 are not found at the present day out of Africa, two are specially 

 American. Some are met with both in Africa, Asia, and 

 America, particularly in the last named country. 



A great number of the species of this period are allied to 

 (existing American species. Seventeen genera still inhabit the 

 Old World ; seven of them, as well as those which are exclusively 

 European, are still represented at the present day in the 

 ]\Iediterranean fauna. On the subject of the insect fauna of this 

 locality Sir Charles Lyell observes : — " Few of the genera of 

 Insects are extinct, but many of them imply a Geographical 

 distribution widely different from that now obtaining in the 

 same part of the world." 



On tlie whole, Dr. Heer found that the results furnished by 

 an examination of the Insect fauna of Qilningen agreed Avith those 

 derived from a study of the flora, although the character of the 

 flora is more strictly American and more, tropical than that of the 

 fauna, and induced him to believe that the summer climate of 

 (Elningen Avas not tropical, but that the winter climate Avas 

 extremely mild. 



To this period (Upper Miocene) Dr. Heer refers certain 

 .strata at Parschliig in Styria, Austria, from Avhich he enumerates 

 .fourteen species of insects, viz : — 



Coleoptera 7 species 



Orthoptera ... 2 



Neuroxitera ... ... ... 1 



Hymeuo23tei-a 

 Diptera 



14 



