CO GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



On the Fossil Insects of the Tertim^y Formations o/Oeningen and 

 Hadoboj. By Professor Oswald Heer of Ziiricli. — Veher die 

 Fossile Inseht en-Fauna der Tertiar-Gehilde von Oeningen und 

 Radoboj, von Hrn. Prof. O. Heer. 



[From Leonhard und Bronn's Jahrbuch fur Mineralogie, Jalirgangl847,p. 161.] 

 Besides tlie insects of Oeningen, I have also taken those of Rado- 

 boj in Croatia into consideration ; to these are added a few species I 

 discovered on the Upper Rhone, and some from Panchlug in Steyer- 

 mark. My researches on the Coleoptera being now concluded, I am 

 proceeding with the other orders, and hope to finish the whole within 

 a year. This work will appear in the Memoirs of the Swiss Society 

 of Naturalists in two parts. The first, containing the Coleoptera, will 

 be published in a few months, as the seven plates (the figures all 

 drawn by myself) are already engraved, and the text, of fifteen to 

 sixteen sheets, at the press. On these seven plates 115 species of 

 Coleoptera are figured, and in the work 119 described ; 101 species 

 from Oeningen, 14 from Radoboj, 3 from Panchlug, and 2 from the 

 Upper Rhone. Only one species {Telephoi^us tertiarius, m.) occurs 

 both at Oeningen and Radoboj. The hundred Oeningen species are 

 divided into 68 genera and 34 families. Of these genera 51 still exist 

 in the Swiss Fauna ; 4 cannot be correctly determined ; 5 genera, 

 wanting in our present Fauna, belong to that of Southern Europe ; 

 one is found only in North America, and 7 are extinct. Only the last 

 consequently are new genera, which introduce new and truly remark- 

 able forms into the system, whilst the other genera exhibit only known 

 types, but in peculiar species, foreign to the present world. The seven 

 extinct genera, which chiefly distinguish the tertiary coleopterous 

 Fauna from that now existing, belong to six diiferent natural families ; 

 only one genus is so singular as to form a new family. Next to these 

 pecuhar Oeningen genera, a marked characteristic of this Fauna is the 

 number of Buprestides and Hydrophilides. Most of the aqueous 

 coleoptera of Oeningen belong to these latter families, whereas at pre- 

 sent in our waters, and indeed throughout all Europe, the Dytiscides 

 prevail. A comparison of the Oeningen coleoptera with those now 

 living shows, that in general the most closely allied forms do not 

 belong to our Fauna, but to that of Southern Europe. I will only 

 mention the genera Capnodis, Perotis, Sphenoptera, Mycterus and 

 Brachycerus, genera which characterise the countries on the Mediter- 

 ranean, but are altogether wanting with us. To this must be added, 

 that among the fifty-one genera still living in Switzerland, some 

 (Mesosa, Sphenophorus, Gymnapleurus) only occur in the warmer 

 districts ; further, that almost all these genera are found also in 

 Southern Europe, and that only a few among them belong to Sv/itzer- 

 land and Germany, and not to the Mediterranean countries ; I there- 

 fore think myself justified in afiirming, that the coleopterous Fauna 

 of Oeningen has the character of that of Southern Europe, or rather 

 of the Mediterranean zone, but mingled with a few American forms. 



[J. N.] 



