284 GEOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



Aargau. The same Swiss deposits have yielded upwards of one 

 hundred and ten species of Coleoptera, in addition to various forms 

 of Orthoptera, Neuroptera, and Hemiptera (Cicadina). A true 

 song-cricket (Cicada Murchisoni) has been described by Brodie 

 from the English Lias. The most diverse types of existing Neu- 

 roptera and Orthoptera, which appear to have been fully differ- 

 entiated at this period, acquire a further development in the suc- 

 ceeding Oolites, where, in addition to representatives of all the 

 other orders that had thus far appeared, we meet with the earliest 

 Lepidoptera (Sphingidae). 



The singularly deficient fauna of the Cretaceous period is suc- 

 ceeded in the Tertiary, more particularly in the Oligocene and 

 Miocene divisions, by a most prolific development of specific forms. 

 The Miocene deposits of Switzerland, and the immediately ad- 

 joining tracts, have yielded to Dr. Heer no less than eight hun- 

 dred and seventy-six species eight hundred and forty-four of 

 which are recorded from Oeningen (Baden) alone distributed as 

 follows: Coleoptera, five hundred and forty-three; Orthoptera, 

 twenty ; Neuroptera, twenty-nine ; Hymenoptera, eighty-one ; Lepi- 

 doptera, three; Diptera, sixty-four; and Rhynchota, one hundred 

 and thirty-six. Scarcely less famous as insect localities than Oen- 

 ingen are Aix in France and Radoboj in Croatia ; but apparently far 

 surpassing either of these in respect to both individual and specific 

 development are the tufa-beds of the Florissant region in Colorado, 

 referred to the Oligocene period. The Hymenoptera from these 

 deposits comprise several species of bees (Apidae and Andrenidae), 

 about thirty species of wasp-like forms (Vespidae, Sphegidae, &c.), 

 fifty species of ants (represented by about four thousand specimens, 

 mainly Formicidae), and some eighty species of Jchneumonidae, be- 

 sides numerous other forms. The Diptera individually make up 

 nearly one-third of all the specimens found in the region (Culicidae, 

 Tipulidae, Bibionidae), and of the heteropterous division of the 

 Hemiptera there appear to be no less than one hundred species. 

 The Coleoptera are likewise exceedingly abundant, and comprise 

 among other forms some thirty species each of the families Carabidae, 

 Staphylinidae, and Scarabeidae, and forty of the Elateridae. The 

 total number of species represented in this order is about three 

 hundred, of which about one hundred and twenty belong to the 

 rhynchophorus division. 



