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15. South African Neuroptera. I. By P. ESBEN-PETERSEN, Silke- 



borg, Denmark. 



THE following descriptions and notes are based on material belonging 

 to the South African Museum, Cape Town, and I take herewith the 

 liberty to express to the Director, Dr. L. Pc'ringuey, my best thanks 

 for his kind permission to work out the material belonging to that 

 institution. 



Unfortunately descriptions and notes concerning the ISTeuropterous 

 fauna of South Africa are scattered in a large number of periodicals 

 and treatises, but I hope to succeed in giving complete lists of the 

 fauna. 



Many of the species described from South Africa are certainly 

 synonymous with species described previously. Unfortunately I have 

 also made mistakes, but when such mistakes too often take place I 

 think it is mostly due to the fact that many species are described on 

 one specimen only differing from the typical form. 



In the Clirysopidae it is quite inadmissible to describe a new 

 species on a single specimen, unless the specimen possesses characters 

 so distinct as to enable one to separate the species from already 

 known ones. Brownish, reddish or greyish markings on head, thorax 

 and abdomen of the Ghrysopid^e are not at all characters to rely 

 upon. Such markings are often produced by the drying of the insect. 

 Likewise the colour of the uervures in the wings is very often dependent 

 on the more or less complete maturity of the insect. The number of 

 cross-veins in the graduated series is also, as a rule, a very poor and 

 unreliable character. 



OSMYLIDAE. 



GEN. EHIPIDOSMYLUS. 

 EHIPIDOSMTLUS INTERLINEATUS. 



Osmylus interlliieatus, MacLachlau, Ent, Monthly Mag. vol. vi, 

 p. 199, 1869 (Natal?). 



Khipidosmylns interlineatus, Kriiger, Stett. entom. Zeit. p. 25, 1913; 

 ibid. p. 74, 1914. 



One fine specimen (?) of this interesting species from M'fongosi, 

 Zululand, May, 1891 (W. E. Jones leg.). The specimen agrees very 



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