Bulletin, Southern California Academy of Sciences wew y Volume 43 Part 1, 1944 OAltB FOSSIL ARTHROPODS OF CALIFORNIA By W. DwiGHT Pierce L INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT The first true fossil insect described from California was a dragon fly, PrototJiore explicata Cockerell, described from soft blush rock of the Eocene, taken at Phillips' sawmill, five miles south of Montgomery Creek, Shasta County, collected by Ralph W. Chaney. (T. D. A. Cockerell. 1930. A fossil dragon fly from California (Odonata: Calopterygidae). Entom. News 41 :49-50, pi. 6). Although we now have other insects to add to the California list, this dragon fly remains the oldest geologically. Prior to this, however, numerous insects imbedded in the Pleistocene tar deposits of the Rancho La Brea pits in Hancock Park, Los Angeles, were listed by Fordyce Grinnell (1908. Qua-ternary myriapods and insects. Univ. Calif. P'ub., Geology 5 :207-215, pis. 15-16), although some of his names were later s'ynony-mized by Blaisdell. E. O. Essig (1931. A history of entomology: 3-9) has added a few more species. The La Brea Pleistocene list is as follows : Myriapoda Spirohohts mistralis Grinnell, fragments. Coleoptera Carabidae Platynus near fitnchris LeConte, a single elytron. Amara insignis Dejean, two perfect elytra. Pterostichus sp., several elytra (Grinnell; Essig). Calosoma semilaeve LeConte, elytron. Dytiscidae Dytiscus marginicollis LeConte, two elytra. Tenebrionidae Coniontis robusta Horn, one elytron. 1
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