^o. 2.J SCUDDER ON PALEONTOLOGY OF FLORISSANT, COLORADO. 291 



Nearly a third of all the specimens I have seen from Florissant belong 

 to the Diptera. Onlicidae and Chironomidae are abundant, but not 

 generally very perfect. Tipulidae are abundant and admirably pre- 

 served ; of the larger forms alone there appear to be several hundred 

 specimens, and apparently a considerable number of species. The 

 smaller Tipulidae, including the Limnobina, are also abundant and well 

 l^reserved. Some beautiful Mycetophilidae have been noticed, but these 

 have not yet been selected from the mass of smaller flies. Bibioiiidae 

 are the prevailing type among the Diptera; there must be 1,000 speci- 

 mens belonging to this family, and on a cursory view there appears to be 

 no great variety ; probably both here and in the ants, as in some genera of 

 plants, it will appear that there are vast numbers of a single species ; a 

 great many specimens are represented by bodies only, or these accom- 

 panied by insignificant fragments of wings ; but even putting all these 

 aside, there remain a goodly number with tolerably perfect wings, and 

 some in which almost every part of the body is preserved ; taken as a 

 whole, however, they are perhaps less perfect than specimens of almost 

 any other family. There are a dozen or more Stratiomyidae, of two or 

 three species ; and several species of Midasidae or Hermoneuridae, one 

 admirable specimen of the latter family having been described as be- 

 longing to a new genus under the name of Palembolus florigerus. There 

 are nearly half a hundred Asilidae and Therevidae, many of them ex- 

 quisitely preserved, some of great size, and among them a fair variety 

 of forms. Bombylidae are somewhat less abundant, but show some 

 superb specimens of great size and in wonderful preservation ; there 

 are certainly six or eight species. Syrphidae are more abundant than 

 the last, nearly 50 specimens having been found, in which the patterns 

 of the abdominal colors are generally well marked, and among which 

 we find a considerable variety. There is a vast host of Muscidae and 

 allied groups, of which no account has yet been taken, and with which 

 no doubt many other forms are still commingled ; but three or four 

 species of very pretty Ortalidae may be mentioned, with ten or a dozen 

 siDecimens. 



About three-fifths of the Coleoptera belong to the normal series and 

 two-fifths to the Khyncophorous division. There are 80 to 90 specimens 

 of Carabidae, including perhaps 30 species; many of them are very fine 

 and perfect, especially in the sculpturing of the elytra. Water- beetles 

 are not so numerous as would be anticipated ; there are not more than 

 GO or 70 specimens, with perhaps twenty species ; there are no large 

 Dytisci, such as occur abundantly at Oeningen ; the largest of our spe- 

 cies, perhaps an Hydrophilus, not exceeding IS""" in length. Tbe 

 Staphylin dae are rather more numerous than the ground-beetles, with 

 nearly 30 species, some of them tolerably large. There are half a dozen 

 species of Nitidulidae. Some 60 or more Scarabeidae show considerable 

 variety, there being nearly 30 species among them. Nearly as many 

 Buprestidae have quite as great a variety of form ; a considerable number 



