ON SOME OF THE FOSSIL TETTIGIDiE. 173 



Berendt notes that such remarkable "superstitious 

 reHcs" can be well compared and identified with those 

 of Switzerland and Hungary on the one side, and 

 those of Lake Ladoga on the other. 



As I have elsewhere given an account of some of the 

 sources of this fossil resin, there is no necessity for 

 repetition.* It is probable that several Conifers, now 

 extinct, exuded this resin, which is singularly hard 

 and insoluble ; but it is believed that Pimis succinifer 

 of Goepert was the chief producer. 



Amber of some kind is to be found over a large 

 part of the earth's surface. It occurs in the London 

 alluviums, the clays of the Paris basin, the Isle of 

 Wight, aud on the shores of the Caspian. It has been 

 collected from Norway to Madagascar, and from India 

 to Gayhead in the United States of America, &c. The 

 insects enclosed, therefore, must have ranged over 

 several zone temperatures, and accordingly they are 

 representatives of many British and foreign genera. 



Oligocene Period. 



Mr. S. Scudder's work, already alluded to, is parti- 

 cularly valuable as famishing the means for a compre- 

 hensive survey and comparison of the fossil insects of 

 the Old and New World. In the present state of our 

 knowledge 612 species of American fossil insects have 

 been described, out of which the Hemiptera form the 

 large proportion of 266 species. As Mr. Sciidder assumes 

 that the described European species number 218, the 

 representatives of North America outnumber them 

 by 48. There can, however, be little doubt that when 

 the vast insectiferous beds of Western America have 

 been examined (though so promising a field, they 

 have been only cursorily looked into), this excess over 

 European species will prove still larger. 



One fact is remarkable, that a great number of the 



* See ' British Aphides,' vol. iv. pp. 160 — 165. ' 



