574 MESOZOIC INSECTS OF QUEENSLAND, iv., 



the fossil before anything could be published. Here I was 

 helped and guided by a regular correspondence with Mr. Miller. 

 He, like other entomologists, found in the supposed corneous 

 border of the wing a stumbling-block to the acceptance of any 

 theory of Dipterous affinity for the fossil. He also pointed out 

 the remarkable difference between the structure of the costal 

 vein in Dunstania and in Exsul, and finally declared his belief 

 in the Homopterous nature of the fossil. 



The only other possibility that occurred to me was, that Dun- 

 siania might be the wing of a large Oligoneurous Mayfly. The 

 shape and venation of the wing made this likely; but I was 

 unable to follow this line of research far, as I soon became con- 

 vinced that the evident toughness and strength of build of the 

 Dunstania wing could not possibly have belonged to the wings 

 of any representative of the Order Plectoptera. 



Here, then, after having reviewed possible affinities with four 

 Orders, Lepidoptera, Diptera, Homoptera and Plectoptera, I 

 abandoned the study of this puzzling fossil for a time, in the 

 hope that a respite from the work might rid my mind of any 

 preconceived notions, that were bound by now to be present, 

 after so long a time spent in thinking over the problem, and 



misfht allow some new lierht to come in. 



In the meanwhile, I had received from Mr. Dunstan the com- 

 plete series of fossils found at Ipswich since my firbt paper had 

 been published, and had been arranging these for study. For 

 some months, I had put the new material of Dunstania by, as it 

 was evidently in very poor preservation compared with the type, 

 and I did not expect to get any new evidence from it. It was, 

 however, from this new material that the solution of the problem 

 came; and that solution was of such a nature that it could have 

 scarcely been suggested as a possibility, on the evidence of the 

 type alone. 



The number of the type-specimen was 2a; the two wings of 

 Dunstania received after the type had been described were 

 numbered 107a and 147 respectively. In the present paper, I 

 propose to give a complete description of the new material, 

 together with a re-examination of the type in the light of the 



