BY R. J. TILLYARD. 261 



radius, are exceedingly delicate in outline, so that it is by no 

 means easy to make an accurate drawing of the fossil. 



The portion preserved consists of a considerable part (probably 

 about three-fifths) of a slender wing, with the costal margin well 

 marked right up to the apex. The posterior border is missing, 

 except for a short piece lying towards the base of the fossil. 

 The space between the radius and the costal margin is distinctly 

 coloured brownish. This is almost certainly due to the preser- 

 vation of brown pigment originally located in this area of the 

 wing. 



In attempting to place this fossil correctly, I have had to rely 

 upon only two or three important characters, since the base of 

 the wing, which may be presumed to have held the most definite 

 venational structures, is missing. First of all, I have relied 

 upon the absence of the subcostal vein from all the distal portion 

 of the costal space. Secondly, the well marked radius, evidently 

 very strongly built, has running below and parallel to it a well- 

 developed radial sector, giving off obliquely descending branches 

 at fairly wide intervals Combining these characters with a 

 third, viz., that the cross-veins are fairly wide apart, regular, 

 and somewhat oblique, we should have little difficulty in making 

 a very close comparison between this fossil and the interesting 

 family Elcanidce, of the Order Orthoptera, from the Mesozoic 

 strata of England and Germany. 



Handlirsch defines the ElcanidcB as follows^ (his text is in 



German) : — This family is characterised by the possession 



of long, typical Locustoid antennsCj well-developed jumping legs, 

 and also, in the female, a long ovipositor. On the other hand, 

 up to the present, no wing has been found with a stridulating 

 organ. 



The wing-venation resembles in many respects that of the 

 Acridioidea more than that of the Locustoidea existing to-day. 



The forewing is characterised by a costal vein slightly removed 

 from the border, and, therefore, by a precostal area. The sub- 

 costa is greatly shortened; the radius is free, and sends branches 

 towards the free anterior border; its sector arises near the base, 



* Die Fossilen Insekten, p. 412. 

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