BY R. J. TlLLYARt). 267 



having had Palifiodictyopterous ancestors also requires careful 

 investigation. 



My own researches upon the JSfeuropteroidea and Fanorpoidea, 

 as far as they have gone, have convinced me that these two Sub- 

 classes have a great deal in common. They have also revealed 

 the possibility of the Hymenoptera, and even the Coleoptera, 

 having a closer relationship with the Fanorpoidea than is gener- 

 ally suspected. Not only do many signs point to the Mecoptera 

 (Fanorpatae) as being a central Order round which all the rest of 

 the Holometabola may be more or less closely grouped, but the 

 Palseontological evidence also points unmistakably in the same 

 direction. For fossil Mecoptera of the genus Pennochorista, 

 closely allied to the existing Australian genus TfEiiiochorista^ 

 have now been proved to exist in the Fermian of Newcastle, New 

 South Wales(6),; whereas no other Holometabolous insects are 

 known from Falseozoic strata at all. Even admitting the incom- 

 pleteness of the fossil record, we must be immediately struck 

 with the fact that the Mecoptera existed in Fermian times in 

 Australia, in a form very similar to that of to-day. This points 

 to the Order having arisen well before Fermian times. The 

 earliest known Neuropteroidea are Upper Triassic, the earliest 

 Coleoptera also Upper Triassic, the earliest Trichoptera the 

 same, and the earliest Hymenoptera Upper Jurassic. Even if 

 we grant that it is a reasonable expectation that all these Orders 

 will one day be found to have had representatives in earlier 

 strata, yet the same probability holds for the Mecoptera. 



Reviewing the whole case, it seems to me that the time is ripe 

 for a careful study of the whole problem, as far as the evidence 

 will admit, from the point of view of the Mecoptera as the 

 central Order; that is to say, the Order which has preserved, 

 both in its larval, pupal, and imaginal structures, the largest 

 number of archaic characters derived from the original ancestor 

 or ancestors of the Holometabola, whatever they may have been. 



It is to suggest this point of view that 1 have selected as title 

 the somewhat elastic term " The Fanorpoid Complex." By this 

 title, I intend to convey that the research entered upon in this 

 paper has, for its main object, the complete working out of the 



