SCUDDER. ] TERTIARY LAKE BASIN OF FLORISSANT. 279 
taken place during or after miocene times, but there are no physical 
data yet at hand to warrant definite conclusions on this head. 
PALEONTOLOGY. 
The insects preserved in the Florissant basin are wonderfully numer- 
ous, this single locality having yielded in a single summer more than 
double the number of specimens which the famous localities at Oeningen, 
in Bavaria, furnished Heer in thirty years. Having visited both places 
I can testify to the greater prolificness of the Florissant beds. As a 
rule, the Oeningen specimens are better preserved, but in the same 
amount of shale we still find at Florissant a much larger number of sat- 
isfactory Specimens than at Oeningen, and the quarries are fifty times 
as extensive and far more easily worked. 
The examination of the immense series of specimens found at Floris- 
sant* has not gone far enough to yield data sufliciently definite for gen- 
eralization of any value, or which might not be altered or even reversed 
on further study. It may, nevertheless, be interesting to give a running 
notice of what has been observed in assorting the collection, and to 
make the single comparison with the Oeningen insect fauna which the 
number of individuals will furnish. This is indicated by the following 
table, based on a rough count of the Florissant specimens, but which 
cannot be far astray: 
. A 
Percentage of representation by— Fl poe re) Sune one 
ERG IMENOPLelaes eas Sa em ee ae sae ean ella aia aie eel eels foreiei= eins eiateistates 40 14 
pe piers srgocebdadoo=uorsor nos abeddctostboneedod sSesecst pasa aber scone oosooas 30 7 
WOLCO BLOT Aree aera se yee es cine aoe Sees See ee Mae ee ame MRR a ute 13 48 
HIP Mmiip heLaes =P apes loa oe Asche tees meee pace n OG ses ae Be aces eStats cembee cee & 11 12 
INGULOPLET AL coco sse 2 es es esee senate ce sect e eens csmtine seta ee ome ee 5 ily 
ORTHO PLOT An ee fame ta seme tees nae EE Seah Cree matics MRI Jeo ar + 3 
PATACTIINTG Oaths aioe set pect Ss eM ee See fae cee 4 4 
MV IANO Ae oso niseste meee ae nodes Celaeels <bek Sica tici- set cidade’: Saeissale oe seems es cece ak 
RG DICOPLEL Ales saet eco ae ee sate Mee ee aie leeeeizad clei s wdeewoceussemnals as to 
99. 58 101. 6 
It will be seen that the proportion of specimens of each order is very 
different in all that are weil represented, with the sole exception of the 
Hemiptera, while the same groups (Orthoptera, Arachnida, Myriapoda, 
and Lepidoptera) are feebly represented in both. The greatest differ- 
ence occurs in the Diptera, which are less than 7 per cent. of the whole 
at Ceningen and about 30 per cent. at Florissant; in the Hymenoptera, 
which have less than 14 per cent. at Oeningen and 40 per cent. at Flo- 
rissant, due largely to the prodigious number of ants; while the case is 
reversed in the Coleoptera, which form nearly one-half the specimens 
found at Oeningen and only 13 per cent. at Florissant. We possess no 
count of the specimens found at Radoboj, in Croatia, which is regrettable, 
since the fauna of Florissant appears to agree much better with it than 
with any other, at least if one may judge from the comparatively minor 
part played by the Coleoptera and the great number of ants; these lat- 
ter number 57 species in Radoboj, and one of them has furnished 500 
specimens. Still the comparison cannot be carried very closely into 
other departments; for instance, only one rhynchophorous Coleopteron 
has been reported from Radoboj, while they are very numerous and rich 
* Among these are included about 1,000 specimens submitted by the Princeton expe- 
dition, 
