857 



MESOZOIC INSECTS OF QUEENSLAND. 



No. 7. Hemiptera Homoptera; with a Note on the 

 Phylogeny of the Suborder. 



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

 Macleay Fellow op the Society in Zoology. 



(With Twenty-four Text-figures.) 



The first collection of fossil insects made by Mr. Dunstan at 

 Ipswich contained only a single Hemipteron belonging to the 

 Suborder Homoptera. This specimen I named Mesojassus ips- 

 viciensis (8, p. 35, PL 2, fig. 7), placing it in the family Jassi- 

 dae. In the two consignments following, no less than twenty-two 

 specimens of Homoptera are represented, some of them in a very 

 perfect state of preservation. Thus this group now becomes 

 next in importance to the Coleoptera, as regards its numerical 

 preponderance in the Ipswich Insect Fauna; and the working 

 out of the material has been a matter of considerable interest on 

 this account, as well as on account of the beauty and remarkable 

 preservation of some of the forms. 



In writing this paper, I have been fortunate in having had 

 the advice and criticism of Mr. F. Muir, F.E.S., of Honolulu. 

 Mr. Muir is a recognised authority upon the Homoptera, and I 

 desire to thank him for reading the MS. and offering some valu- 

 able criticisms. 



All the material consists of tegmina, either whole or in frag- 

 ments. The toughness of the Homopterous tegmen renders it, 

 like the elytron of the Coleoptera, particularly suitable for pre- 

 servation in the fossil state; whereas the hindwing is, in most 

 families, so delicate that it is not surprising that it is seldom 

 found. Further, owing to the fact that the tegnien is divided 

 obliquely by a deeply impressed furrow along the vein Cu 2 , it is 

 particularly liable to split along this vein ; so that many of the 

 fossils consist either of the main portion of the wing lying an- 



