No. 11.— New Mvocene Coleoptera from Florissant. 
By H. F. Wicknam. 
Tue very rich Coleopterous fauna of the Florissant shales was first 
studied by Dr. S. H. Scudder. He monographed the Rhynchophora 
as long ago as 1893 and seven years later published descriptions of 
the Adephaga and Clavicornia, with a few scattering members of 
other groups, expressing at the time his hope of completing the history 
at some later date. Illness and death intervened to prevent the fulfil- 
ment of this hope and general interest in the subject was so small that, 
with the exception of the description of half a dozen species by Cock- 
erell and Beutenmueller, no more of the beetles were characterized 
for nearly a decade. Meanwhile several expeditions to the field had 
been made by various parties under Professor Cockerell which proved 
so productive that, upon the Coleoptera being submitted to me for 
examination, I was led to undertake a study not only of this material 
but also of that in the United States National Museum and the 
Princeton Geological Museum in the attempt to make the mass of 
specimens available for comparative statistical research in palaeontol- 
ogy. Later, I was able to make two trips to Florissant and to secure 
many additional species, especially those of small size. The combined 
results, so far as published, allowed my description of 172 new forms, 
which, with the 210 already made known by Scudder and the 6 de- 
scribed by Cockerell and Beutenmueller, raised the total number of 
species from these shales to 388. The present paper includes 86 
novelties, while another, now in press, adds 20 more, thus giving a 
known fauna of 494 Coleoptera from this one locality. Perhaps sixty 
or eighty more remain in my hands for study and it is hoped that the 
investigation may be completed within a reasonable time. When the 
descriptive work is finished and the check list compiled, we shall have 
a basis for detailed comparisons with ancient and modern faunae 
sufficiently extensive to promise a fair degree of accuracy in our con- 
_ clusions. 
In this paper, I have confined myself, as far as descriptive work is 
concerned, to material from the S. H. Scudder collections, now the 
property of the Museum of Comparative Zoédlogy. This is very rich 
