THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 34 



o 



THE FIRST AMERICAN FOSSIL MANTIS. 



BY T. D. A. COCKEREIX, BOULDER, COLORADO. 



Only two species of Maniidj\3 have been described from Tertiary 

 formations : Mantis proiogcTa, Heer, from the Upper Miocene of CEninger, 

 and Chcetoessa brevialata, Giebel, from Baltic amber. C/icetoessa, or more 

 properly CJiceteessa (Burmeister, 1838), is known to-day by three species, 

 all from Brazil ; it is not very likely that the amber insect is really con- 

 generic. Heer's Mantis proiogcea is a very poorly preserved object, from 

 which little can be learned. The discovery of a nearly perfect tegmen in 

 the Miocene shales of Florissant adds the group to the fauna of the 

 American Tertiaries. The venation is of a comparatively simple type, 

 and may be compared with that of the E. Indian and African genus 

 Gonypeta, as figured by Hanilirsch (Fossile Insekten, Part r, pi. 2, f. 5). 

 I sent a drawing of the venation of the fossil to Mr. K. N. Caudell, calling 

 attention to its supposed affinities, and asking him whether he could find 

 any other genus showing stronger resemblance. He kindly replies : " I 

 know of no modern genus more likely to contain it than the one you 

 mention. I presume without doubt it is an extinct form representing a 

 new genus." In the meanwhile, however, I have received from Mr. Rehn 

 a copy of his figure oi Photi?ia brevis, from Paraguay (Proc. Acad. Nat. 

 Sci. Phila. , 1907, p. 157), and this is apparently as near to the fossil genus 

 as Go?iypeta. The most that can be said about the fossil is that it repre- 

 sents a generalized form of the subfamily Mafiti?ice, apparently distinct 

 from, though allied to, those now living. 



Litkophotifta, n. g. 

 Costa little arched ; costal region narrow, reticulated, so that the 

 cells above the subcosta (very irregular) are mostly double ; subcosta 

 terminating on costal margin about 2^ times as far from base as from 

 apex ; radius ending a little above apex of wing, fiot at all brajiched below 

 (branched below, forming a radial sector,* in Gojiypeta and P/iotina), but 

 giving off about three very oblique branches above, the last of these being 

 itself branched ; media branching a little before the middle, the upper 

 branch again branched about 5^ mm. from the apex, but the lower 

 simple ; cubitus with three long branches, of which the first is branched 

 about 10 mm. from the base of the tegmen ; anal with three branches, 



*I here follow Handlirsch's interpretation (for Gonypeta), but comparison 

 with the fossil suggests that the so-called radial sector is really the main stem of 

 the radius, while the supposed end of the radius is the last of the upper branches. 



