446 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 66G 



number of genera and subgenera in the 

 check list, but this is evidently a pure lapsus, 

 as only eleven are omitted in his paper, viz., 

 Endomychura, Gymochorea, Phoehastria, Pal- 

 assicarbo, BhyacopJbilus, Uranomitra, Burrica, 

 Chelidonaria, Pachysylvia,, Myiohius and Neo- 

 corys. 



Wither Stone 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



SOME OLD-WORLD TYPES OP INSECTS IN THE 

 MIOCENE OF COLORADO 



The work of the past summer at Florissant 

 has yielded us a large collection of fossils 

 from the Miocene shales. Most of the ma- 

 terial awaits examination; but a few things of 

 unusual interest have been examined, and these 

 have been found to include some forms allied 

 rather to those of the Old World than to those 

 now inhabiting this continent. A brief notice 

 of these is now given. The specimens them- 

 selves were exhibited at the recent Zoological 

 Congress in Boston. 



DIPTERA 



Glossina oUgocena (Scudder) 



A very good specimen, found at Station 14 

 by Mr. Geo. N. Eohwer. The mouth-parts are 

 preserved, as also the body, wings and legs, all 

 agreeing so well with the modern tsetse flies 

 that generic separation is impracticable. The 

 genus Glossina is to-day confined to Africa, 

 and although placed by Austen in the Muscidse, 

 is a very peculiar type, better regarded as 

 belonging to a distinct family Glossinidse. 

 The fossil species is not new, but was described 

 by Sciidder as Palmstrus oligocenus in 1892, — • 

 a supposed new genus of CEstridse. Scudder's 

 type, which has been compared with the new 

 specimen, lacked the head and other important 

 parts, otherwise its true position would cer- 

 tainly have been recognized. 



The former existence of a tsetse fly in 

 America is of particular interest as having a 

 possible connection with the disappearance of 

 some of the Tertiary Mammalia, as Professor 

 Osborn had suggested. 



hymenoptera 



Perga coloradensis sp. nov. 



A good specimen from Station 14 (W. P. 



Cockerell). A large sawfly, about 27 mm. 

 long and very robust; referable to the Austra- 

 lian genus Perga, and similar to P. schiodtii 

 Westwood, from New South Wales, but larger, 

 the antennae longer and with a larger club 

 (length of club, 3 mm.), stigma much more 

 slender, virtually rudimentary, an interval of 

 more than 1 mm. between the basal and cubital 

 nervures at their place of approximation, and 

 the scutellum and prothorax dark like the rest 

 of the thorax. The anterior wing is 20 mm. 

 long, and the basal nervure meets the trans- 

 verso-medial. Konow makes the tribe Syzy- 

 goniides to include two Australian genera 

 (with thirty-seven species between them) and 

 two Brazilian genera (with three species be- 

 tween them). The fossil is clearly of the 

 Australian, not the Brazilian, type, suggesting 

 that the route of migration was a northern 

 one, via Asia. 



neuroptera 



Halter americana sp. nov. 



A wonderfully preserved example with the 

 wings spread, from Station 13 B (S. A. 

 Eohwer). The anterior wings are clear 

 hyaline, 31 mm. long, with the venation as 

 usual in the genus ; hind wings (as in all the 

 Nemopterida, to which family it belongs) very 

 long and narrow, length 46 mm., with an apical 

 fiddle-shaped expansion, which is dark colored. 

 The Nemopteridse are to-day confined to the 

 Old World, except a single species of Stenor- 

 rhachus found in Chile. The Florissant insect 

 is not of the Chilian genus, but belongs to 

 that section of Halter which includes the 

 Persian H. extensa (Oliv.). In H. extensa 

 the black area of the hind wings is broken 

 into two, whereas in the fossil it is solid and 

 continuous. The persistence of such an ex- 

 tremely peculiar type through such a long 

 time and such migrations indicates a remark- 

 able degree of stability. 



Panorpa arctiiformis sp. nov. 



Station 14 (W. P. Cockerell). A spotted 

 species, looking like an Arctiid moth; wings 

 about 13 mm. long. Close to P. rigida Scud- 

 der, already described from Florissant, but 

 larger, with the third band (the last before the 

 dark apex) much broader. Among the living 



