CHAP. xxn. BELATED TO EECENT SPECIES. 433 



familiar forms such as the common glowworm, Lampyris 

 noctiluca, Linn., the dung-beetle, Geotrupie stercorarius, 

 Linn., the ladybird, Coccinella septempunctata, Linn., the 

 earwig, Forficula auricularia, Linn., some of our common 

 dragon-flies, as Libellula depressa, Linn., the honey-bee, 

 Apis mellifera, Linn., the cuckoo spittle insect, Aphrophora, 

 spumaria, Linn., and a long catalogue of others, to all of 

 which Professor Heer has given new names, but which some 

 entomologists may regard as mere varieties until some 

 stronger reasons are adduced for coming to a contrary 

 opinion. 



Several of the insects above enumerated, like the com 

 mon ladybird, are well known at present to have a very wide 

 range, over nearly the whole of the Old World, for example, 

 without varying, and might, therefore, be expected to have 

 been persistent throughout many successive changes of the 

 earth's surface and climate. Yet we may fairly anticipate 

 that even the most constant types will have undergone some 

 modifications in passing from the Miocene to the Recent 

 epoch, since in the former period the geography and climate 

 of Europe, the height of the Alps, and the general fauna and 

 flora were so different from what they now are. But the 

 deviation may not exceed that which would generally be 

 expressed by what is called, a well-marked variety. 



Before I pass on to another topic, it may be well to answer 

 a question which may have occurred to the reader ; how it 

 happens that we remained so long igno'rant of the vegetation 

 and insects of the Upper Miocene period in Europe ? The 

 answer may be instructive to those who are in the habit of un 

 derrating the former richness of the organic world wherever 

 they happen to have no evidence of its condition. A large part 

 of the Upper Miocene insects and plants alluded to have been 

 met with at Oeninghen, near the Lake of Constance, in two or 

 three spots embedded in thinly laminated marls, the entire 



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