44 TERTIARY COLEOPTERA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



CERCYON Leach. 



A cosmopolitan g-eaus, very rich in species, mostly occnrring' in the 

 north temperate regions and abundant in the United States. Only a couple 

 of fossil species are known, an undetermined species from the Pleistocene 

 of Bavaria, and a species from the older Tei-tiaries of British Columbia. 



CeRCYON ? TERRIGENA. 



Cercyon? terrigena Scudd., Rept. Prog. Geol. Surv. Cau., 1877-78, 179 B (1879); 

 Tert. Ins. N. A., 510-511, pi. 2, fig. 21 (1890); Contr. Canad. Pala?ont., II. -45 



(1892). 



Nicola River, British Columbia. 



Fossil Silphidse are uncommon. Sixteen species in all are known, 

 belonging to eight genera, Silpha alone being represented by more than one 

 species. All of these species except four of Silpha are found in the older 

 Tei-tiaries. Only two genera with a single species each have occurred in 

 America, and of these one, Silpha, occurs also in the Old World Tertiaries. 

 Of the Old World genera four are recognized in amber only, and of the 

 three from the rocks one is regarded as extinct. 



SILPHA Linne'. 



We have in the United States about ten species of this genus, which is 

 mainly north temperate and rich in species. Two recent species have been 

 recog'nized in the Pleistocene of Bavaria and England, and two extinct 

 species in Galicia. In the older Tertiaries five species occur, one each in 

 the deposits of Spitzbergen, Radoboj, Oeningen, the Rhine, and Colorado. 



Silpha colorata s]). iiov. 



PL V, fig. 5. 



The only specimen known is broken just behind the base of the elytra 

 and all the portion in front of it lost. What remains, however, is so charac- 

 teristic that there can be little doubt that it belongs in this family and prob- 

 ably to Silpha. It has the aspect, however, of a Necrophorus from the spots 



