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STUDIES IN AUSTRALIAN MECOPTERA. 



No. ii. The Wing-venation of Chorista australis Klug. 



By R. J. TiLLYARD, M.A., D.Sc, F.L.S., F.E.S., Linnean 

 Macleay Fellow of the Society in Zoology. 



(Plate xliii.; and four Text-figures). 



In collecting the evidence required for my work upon the 

 Panorpoid Complex, it was found necessary to examine the pupal 

 tracheation of examples of all the Orders there studied. The 

 only Order in which this had not yet been done (for at least one 

 example of the Order) was the Mecoptera; in which so little is 

 known of the life-histories, that it appears that only two observers, 

 Brauer in Austria and Miyake in Japan, have ever succeeded 

 in following up the complete life-history of any single species. 

 Neither of these authors was seized with the importance of 

 making a study of the pupal wing-tracheation, although it is 

 evident that the opportunity was offered to both of them."*^ The 

 work of both was carried out upon the genus Panorpa, which is 

 abundant enough in the Northern Hemisphere, but does not 

 occur in Australia. 



It was therefore necessary for me to set about the discovery 

 of the pupa of some Australian representative of the Order. The 

 only species that is at all common round Sydney is Harpohittacus 

 tiUyardi Esb -Pet. But this belongs to a family that is, in man}'' 

 ways, the most highly specialised of all the Mecoptera; whereas, 

 for my purposes, it was clear that an archaic representative of 

 the Order was to be preferred. I therefore decided to follow up 

 the life-history of the rare Chorista australis Klug, of which I 



* Brauer's work was done long before theComstock-Needham Theorj' of 

 Venation saw the light. Mij^ake's work is of recent date, but its objective 



was not venational, and the pupal wings were not examined. 



