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STUDIES IN AUSTRALIAN NEUROPTERA. 



No.8. REVISION OF THE FAMILY ItHONIDjE, WITH DESCRIPTIONS 



of a new Genus and two new Species. 



By R. J. Tillyard, M.A., D.Sc, F.L.S., F.E.S., Linnean 

 Macleay Fellow of the Society in Zoology 



(With six Text-figures.) 



In No.4 of this Series of Studies (9), I dealt, among other 

 families of the Planipennia, with the Ithonidce, and described a 

 new species, Iihonefulva Till., from Stradbroke Island, Queens- 

 land. Since that time, I have done a large amount of work on 

 this interesting family, with the result that it is now possible to 

 give a thorough revision of it, together with a complete account 

 of the extraordinary life history of the original species, Rhone 

 fusca Newman, described as long ago as 1838(6). In this paper, 

 I propose to confine myself to the revision of the family, reserv- 

 ing the account of the life-history of I. fusca for a succeeding 

 paper. 



In 1853(7), Newman first proposed the separation of Rhone 

 fusca as the type of a new family Ithonesidce, a name which I 

 subsequently changed to Ithonidce (9j in conformity with the rules 

 governing zoological nomenclature. The classification adopted 

 by Newman in this paper was very remarkable, considering the 

 early date at which it was attempted, and was certainly worthy 

 of greater attention than it has received from later entomologists. 

 Briefly, he proposed to divide the old Linnean Order Neuroptera 

 into two Orders : the Neuroptera, containing only those having 

 no true pupal stage; and the Stegoptera, containing those with 

 a true pupal stage. Thus he was the first to recognise the 

 seriousness of the error by which both hemimetabolous and holo- 

 metabolous insects had been placed within the confines of a 

 single Order; an error that is by now universally admitted by all 

 thinking entomologists. In his Order Stegoptera he included 



