ORTHOPTEEA— PHASMIDA. 219 



Family PHASMIDA Leach. 



Fossils of this fjimily are among- the great rarities. Yet they have 

 been found even in carboniferous times, as lias lieen abundantly shown by 

 Brongniart. In a collection of over three thousand amber insects possessed 

 by Menge a dozen only belonged to this family and represented three 

 different genera. But excepting in amber, they have never before been 

 recovered from Tertiary deposits. The single specimen found at Florissant 

 is not very far removed apparently from the curious amber genus Pseu- 

 doperla, but is more nearly allied to forms peculiar to the warmer parts of 

 America. (June, 1884.) 



AGATHEMERA Stal. 



This genus is composed of few and exclusively American species hav- 

 ing a rather stout, compact, and brief form for Phasmida. All the genera 

 in the inmiediate vicinity are also American, and none of them have befoi'e 

 been found fossil. 



Agathemera reclusa. 



PI. 17, Fig. 11. 



The brevity of the legs, aborted condition of the organs of flight 

 short mesothorax, and comparatively stout abdomen not tapering apically 

 make it tolerably ceitain that the species here found fossil belongs to the 

 group formerly classed in Anisomorpha, and is more nearly related to Agath- 

 emera than any other known genus. The head is quadrate, stout, a little 

 longer than broad ; the pronotum is composed of a larger quadrate piece, 

 narrowing rapidly in front of the insertion of the legs, posterior to the con- 

 traction about equally broad and long, but with It half as long again as 

 broad ; mesothorax a little broader posteriorly than in front and twice as 

 broad as the head, bearing tegmina with rounded tips just reaching its 

 posterior marg'in, the segment of equal length and breadth and a little 

 longer than the other segments of the thorax ; metathorax tapering apical!)^, 

 nearly as long as its greatest breadth, but shorter than the mesothorax, and 

 bearing small functionless wings, not surpassing its borders. A slight 

 raised median line on the front half of the thorax. Abdomen stout, enlarg- 

 ing a little in the posterior half, all the segments broader than long by 

 about an equal amount. The last segment of the abdomen is not preserved, 



