BY R. J. TILLYARU. 8()3 



-la, Handlirscb placed this fossil, together with the genus Pros- 

 bole, in a new Order Palaeoheniiptera, and formed, for the re- 

 ception of this single fossil, the new family Scytinopteridae. I 

 have already discussed the genus Prosbole in connection with the 

 Triassic Dunstaniidae from the Ipswich Beds, and have, in the 

 same place, given it as my opinion that Scytinoptera is a true 

 Homopteron (10). A survey of the new Ipswich Homoptera 

 now shows that this opinion is correct. For there can be no 

 doubt that the forms included in this part are true Homoptera, 

 all of them having the tough, leathery consistency of the tegmen 

 so frequently found in the Suborder, with distinct separation 

 of a claval area along a straight vena dividens, and also de- 

 finitely Homopteroid venations. And when we come to compare 

 the venation of Scytinoptera with that of those Ipswich fossils 

 which we have not so far been able to place, we are struck at 

 once with the close similarity between this Permian genus and 

 two of the Ipswich forms, which I have placed in a new genus 

 Mesoscytina. These forms are undoubtedly closely related to 

 Scytinoptera, and should go into the same family. I have, 

 therefore, no hesitation in removing Scytinoptera from the 

 Palaeoheniiptera to the true Homoptera, and in constituting the 

 family Scytinopteridae to contain the most archaic venational 

 types of Homoptera yet discovered. 



The Scytinopteridae are distinguished at once by the lack of 

 fusion between R, M and Cu basally, there being instead, gener- 

 ally, a very peculiar formation at the base of these three veins, 

 which is well shown in the genus Scytinoptera itself (Text-fig. 

 4) . It would appear that three veins start out separately from 

 the extreme base, and then come together again at a point a 

 little further on. This same formation is to be seen in the 

 Ipsviciidac. 



Apart from this, (lie Scytinopteridae have the veins R, M and 

 Cu separate, and diverging from one another from near the base 

 outwards. In the original genus Scytinoptera, the clavus was 

 not preserved. In one of the two species of Mesoscytina, n.g*., 

 described in this paper, a considerable portion of the claval area 

 is preserved. From this we can see that the anal angle was 

 somewhat rounded, not obtuse-angled as in the Jassidae, and 

 that IA and 2A are of very primitive form, and lie far apart 

 from one another. In another new genus from Ipswich, Meso- 

 diphthera, in which only the basal half of the tegmen is pre- 



