BLATTIDiE ENCLOSED IN AMBEE. 59 



The British Museum Collection of Blattid^ enclosed in Amber. 

 By R. Shelfokd, M.A., F.L.S. 



(Plate 7.) 



[Read 4th May, 1911.] 



In a previous number of this Journal (Zool. vol. xxx. 1910, pp. 336-355) 

 I described a laro-e collection o£ Blattidae in amber belonging to the late 

 Dr. R. Klebs, of Konigsberg-i.-Pr. The memoir here presented deals with 

 a smaller collection which Dr. A. Smith Woodward, F.R.S., has most kindly 

 handed over to me for examination and study. The specimens come from 

 several localities and from at least two geological horizons, and by my study 

 of them I am enabled to extend slightly our knowledge of the cockroaches of 

 the past. The extreme modernity of the species is as apparent in this collection 

 as in that belonging to Dr. Klebs, and again I find it unnecessary to erect 

 a single new genus for the new forms which I describe. For this I was 

 prepared, but I was certainly not prepared to find an example of the modern 

 species EutJu/ro'hapha paci/ica, Coq., in the British Museum collection ; and 

 yet such is indeed the case. This species, which at present is found in most 

 of the tropical regions of the world, occurred in Miocene times in Europe, as 

 evidenced by a well-preserved specimen in amber which, after a careful 

 examination, I find to be identical with modern pinned specimens in the Hope 

 Museum, Oxford. If llJiithyrr'JicqyJta jMcijiea v.'as a generalised type of cock- 

 roach, its occurrence in the Miocene period would perhaps excite but little 

 surprise ; but it is a highly modified form and the type of wing-structure 

 is quite peculiar. 



The wide geographical distribution of this speeies is sufficient evidence of 

 its " fitness " to survive amidst divergent conditions of life. Its occurrence 

 in Europe in Miocene times, and in a form which, so far as can be seen^ does 

 not differ in any important particular from examples extant to-day in South 

 Africa, shows that the survival-value of the species is no new attribute, but a 

 heritage from a past of very respectable antiquity. Until our knowledge of 

 the Tertiary Blattidas is much more complete than it is at present, it will be 

 impossible to say whether the present distribution of JE. pacijica is an extension 

 of a more restricted range in Miocene times, or if the species had a wider 

 distribution then than at present. 



LINN. JOURN. — ZOOLOGY, VOL, XXXII, 6 



