128 FOSSIL INSP:CTS from COMMENTRY, FRANCE, 



manner that these supposed mandibles of Mpgm/nafha do in the 

 actual fossil. The only two discordant characters are the much 

 more complex venation of the fossil, and the closeness of its wings 

 at their bases. The latter may be easily explained as having 

 been due to unequal crushing of the thorax: probably the wings 

 were actually well separated at their bases, as the structure of 

 the thorax, and the position of the legs, undoubtedly suggest. 

 As for the venation, it is quite evident that recent Embioptera^ 

 like uKJst recent Termites, possess a very reduced venation, con- 

 taining only very little of the original elements. We see, in 

 JIastotermes, how complex was the venation originally possessed 

 by the Termites. In the Embioptera, the analogue of Masto- 

 termes no longer exists; or, at any rate, it has not yet been dis- 

 covered. But I have seen a species from Australia (of which, 

 unfortunately, I have no notes or figures) with a venation con- 

 siderably more complex than that of Oliyotoma. All students of 

 the Embioptera agree that they represent the last remnants of 

 a peculiar group of great antiquity; but, so far, their fossil history 

 has been almost completely missing.* 



Meyax/natha is larger than Oliyotoma', but this is what we 

 should expect, if the two are really related. For OliyoUnna is 

 clearly a reduced form, as its venation proves. 



T would suggest, therefore, that Meyaynatha odonatiformis is 

 in reality an ancient representative of the Embioptera, and 

 should be placed within that Order, as the sole known type of a 

 new family, the J/egaynafhidft', differing from all known members 

 of the Order by its greater size and more complex venation, as 

 well as, probably, by tlie shorter comparative distance between 

 the bases of the fore- and hind wings. 



As the identification of the "mandibular-like'" structures as 

 true mandibles is, at the best, very doubtful, and as not a single 

 Odonate character is possessed by this fossil, it is much to be 

 regretted that its author should have chosen a generic name 



* Two doubtful records from West African Copal can scarcely be 

 regarded as more than subfossil, and add nothing to our knowledge of the 

 group. A single species from Baltic Amber belongs to the genus Oliyotoma- 



