272 MESOzoic INSECTS or Queensland, N-iii., 



This wing may possibly be the hindwing of M. superbum ; but, in llie absence 

 of any direct evidence, 1 have considered it necessary to give it a separate name. 

 It will therefore be here described as M. shepiierdi, n.sp. after Mr. S. R. L. 

 Shepherd, an energetic officer of the Queensland Geological Survey, who un- 

 earthed many of these fossil insects. No. 144a is a nearly complete forewing. 

 not very well preserved, and with the main veins somewhat crushed and com- 

 pressed together. It will be described as M. compressum, n.sp. 



The original definition of the genus Mesogereon given by me on the charac- 

 ters shown in the type fragment now appears quite inadequate, and will be 

 greatly added to in this paper. 



The photographic enlargements shown in the Plates are all the work of Mr. 

 W. C. Davies, Curator of the Cawthron Institute, to whom my best thanks are 

 due for such remarkably fine illustrations of these interesting fossils. 



Descriptions of the Fossils. 



Order HEMIPTERA. 



Sub-order Homoptera. 



Family MESOGEREONIDAE, fam. nov. 



Large, Cicada-like insects, without sound-producing apparatus*. Forewings 

 greatly elongated, little more than oue-i'ourth as wide as long; clavus less than one- 

 fourth the wmg-length, very narrow; rest of wing with the main veins diverging 

 gently from one another at regular intervals across the wing; a few cross-veins 

 present in the basal third, but the rest of the wing entirely devoid of such; 

 ambient vein and coriaceous border complete from above apex round to distal 

 end of clavus. Hindwings short and broad, only half as long as forewing or 

 less; mam veins diverging regularly across the wing, with no cross-veins in the 

 distal half; ambient vein and coriaceous border present as in forewing. In the 

 forewing, Sc, R and Rs are all placed close together near the costal border; from 

 Cui a long anterior branch {rn-cu) arises near the base and runs distad to meet 

 Mi a little beyond its point of origin. In the hindwing, Se, R and Rs are more 

 normally placed, and m-eu is not elongated. Except on t"he clavus, which is 

 smooth, the forewing is remarkable for the regularly arranged cross-ridges be- 

 tween the main veins; each of these ridges is interrupted in the middle by an 

 area carrying strongly tuberculatc macrotrichial sockets, from w-hich stiff hairs 

 project distad (Plate xvii., tig. 19). These structures are absent from the hind- 

 wing, which is covered all over with much finer and more closely arranged jiits, 

 each of which probably carried a very fine hair. 



Closely related to the Jurassic Palaeontinidae, from which they differ 

 chiefly in the shape and sculpture of the wings. Also related more remotely 

 to the existing ('icadidae, in many of which the remains of the regular cross- 

 ridging of the forewing can still be seen, but in which the main veins in the 

 distal part of the wing are always connected by strong cross-veins. 



Genus Mesogereon Tillyard. 



Tillyard, Mesozoie and Tertiary Insects of Queensland and New South Wales, 

 Queensland Geol. Survey, Publ. No. 253, 1916, p. 33. 



The definition of this genus can now be amended as follows: — To the charac- 

 ters given for the family add the following venational details: — Forewing: Rs 

 arising close to base and dividing at less than one-fourth of the wing-lengtli into 



