A REPORT ON SOME RECENT COLLECTIONS OF FOSSIL 



COLEOPTERA FROM THE MIOCENE SHALES 



OF FLORISSANT. 



H. F. WiCKHAM 



Within the past five or six years, the historic locality of Floris- 

 sant, Colorado, has been revisited several times by parties under 

 the direction of Professor T. D, A. Cockerell, of the University of 

 Colorado, for the purpose of making fresh collections of the 

 fossil insects abounding in the shales of the ancient lake bed. 

 These expeditions have been successful in bringing to light a 

 great number of hitherto unknown species, and in securing ad- 

 ditional specimens of many forms already known. Some of the 

 material has been worked up by Professor Cockerell himself, 

 other portions by Professor Brues and ^Ir. Beutenmueller, while 

 most of the Coleoptera have at length come into my hands for 

 study. A good share of these were transmitted directly by Pro- 

 fessor Cockerell, others came through the American Museum of 

 Natural History. I have also had some specimens from the 

 Peabody Museum and am now engaged in finishing a report on 

 the collection of Florissant Coleoptera belonging to the United 

 States National Museum. The new species from the last named 

 source will be published elsewhere, but I have made an occasional 

 note upon them in the present paper and have also referred to a 

 few of the names which are still in manuscript. It is my hope to 

 publish tables of some of the genera when all of the collections 

 are finished, and the intention is to get out a list in which the 

 Florissant beetle fauna will be shown as nearly in its entirety as 

 possible. This seems the more desirable since Dr. Scudder was 

 interrupted in his work by ill health and had only begun the 

 non-Rhynchophorous series. 



Until the remainder of the collections in hand are studied, it 

 is scarcely worth while to make any extended remarks on the pe- 

 culiarities of this Miocene fauna. Dr. Scudder has already called 

 attention to some of the most striking characteristics of beetle 



