40 



Order PROTORTHOPTERA. 

 Genus MESOTITAN, gen. nov. 



Size enormous ; main veins very strongly built, cross-veins 

 regularly arranged in single rows, slightly oblique. Radius and 

 subcosta nearly parallel and moderately close together ; many 

 radial branches. 



TYPE : Mesotitan yi gain ens. sp. nov. 



MESOTITAN GIGANTEUS, sp. nov. 

 Plate 7, fig. 2. 



This large specimen is on a broken block of partly decomposed 

 clay ironstone and poorly preserved. Both the type and counterpart 

 are preserved and show very clearly the strong convexity and con- 

 cavity of the veins. The wings are probably in the position of rest, 

 slanting somewhat away from what appears to be the long axis of the 

 body. As the hindwing underlies the forewing at only a small angle 

 it is impossible to make out the tangle of main veins. The preserved 

 portion of the insect measures 125 mm. long by 146 mm. wide, and 

 appears to represent only a small basal portion of the wings. The 

 forewing when completed was probably at least eight or nine inches 

 long and three inches wide at its broadest part. If this estimate is 

 correct this huge insect must have had an expanse of about twenty 

 inches. 



TYPE -.Spec. 22a (Plate 7, fig. 2). TYPE-COUNTERPART :- 

 Spec. 22b. (B. D. Coll.) 



OBS. : It is a pity that this gigantic insect is not better pre- 

 served for comparison with Titanophas-ma from the Carboniferous 

 of Commentry, with which it very probably had considerable affinity. 

 The existence of these giant insects in Mesozoic strata in Australia 

 long after they had become extinct in the Northern Hemisphere is 

 a point of very great interest, and bears out the view already ex- 

 pressed, that archaic remnants have always formed' a considerable 

 part of the Australian fauna. 



SPECS. 21a, 216.: Besides the type specimen, a small portion 

 of a Protorthopterous wing is represented in Specs. 2la and its 

 counterpart 216 (B. D. Coll). This individual measures 49 mm. by 

 12 mm., and shows the cross-veins arranged in regular parallel 

 rows. Probably this is a small piece of a wing of Mesotitan. 



