ART. XXXII.-THE FOSSIL INSECTS OF THE GREEN RIVER 



SHALES. 



By Samuel H. Scuddee, CAMSRiDaE, Mass. 



The following descriptions are published to afford some notion of the 

 nature and extent of the insect remains found in the immediate vicinity 

 of Green Eiver Station on the Union Pacific Eailroad in Wyoming. 

 Illustrations of all of them have been prepared for a general woi-k on 

 the Tertiary insects of North A merica, to be published by this Survey. 



With a very few exceptions, the specimens were found in a restricted 

 basin, about six kilometres west of the town, exposed by a railway cut- 

 ting called the " Petrified Fish Cut", from the vast number offish remains 

 discovered here in building the road. The insects were obtained in the 

 first instance by Dr. Hayden, who brought home a few specimens only; 

 next, Mr. P. C, A. Eichardson placed in my hands a considerable col- 

 lection;* and last summer my untiring friend Mr. P. 0. Bowditch and 

 myself spent several days working the shales. 



The mass of the specimens from this locality are irrecognizable, and 

 those to the nature of which some clue can be obtained are generally 

 fragmentary ; wingless and often legless trunks are very common, and 

 lead to the suggestion that the specimens had undergone long macera 

 tion in somewhat turbulent waters before final deposition. The zoolo- 

 gical nature of the fauna will be fully considered at another time, and it 

 need only be remarked now that one cannot avoid noticing the tropical 

 aspect of the recognizable forms. More than eighty species are here 

 enumerated. One or two only can be (doubtfully) referred to species 

 described from the White Eiver beds,t referred by Lesquereux to the 

 same horizon. 



I must here express my indebtedness to Mr. G. D. Smith of Gam- 

 bridge, who, with great liberality, has enabled me at all times to use 

 his rich collections of Goleoptera^ which chance to be specially valuable 

 for my j)urpose from the intercalation of Mexican forms in the North 

 American series. 



HYMEl^OPTEEA. 



POEMICID^. 



Lasius terreiis. — A single specimen (No. 14692) obtained by Dr. Kay- 

 den at the " Petrified Fish Cut", Green Eiver (alluded to in his Sun Pic- 

 tures of Eocky Mountain Scenery, p. 98), is probably to be referred to this 



* See American Naturalist, vi, 665-66& ; Bulletin of this Survey, li, No. 1, 77-87. 

 t See Bulletin of this Survey, iii, No. 4, 741-762. 



Bull. iv. No. 4 1 ,,:.-, ^^4. '^' 



