582 MESOZOIC INSECTS Of QUEENSLAND, iv., 



Heteroptera, has been evolved from the stage seen in the Dun 

 st'aniidce, is simply one of reduction and alignment of parts. 

 When it is completed, as in recent Peiitatomidce, the clue to the 

 venation of the membrane would be quite lost, were it not for 

 the preservation of the tracheae in the nymphal wing. I have 

 not been able to find a single existing type of Heteropteron in 

 which this venation is at all closely comparable with that of 

 Dunstania. In the aquatic forms, especially, there does not 

 seem to be any clue at all. Judging chiefly by the shape of the 

 wing, and the condition of the venation of the corium, I am 

 inclined to regard the Coreidce, Lygceidce, and Pyrrhoeoridce as 

 the nearest relatives of the Dunstaniidtfi at the present day. 

 These three families, and no doubt also the Peniatomidce, may 

 well lie almost in a direct line of descent from the Dunstaniidce. 

 We should have to suppose, in restoring the latter, that the 

 development of the scutellum had advanced very little beyond a 

 normal size; and consequently, that the clavus, which, in the 

 position of rest, borders the scutellum, was also very short. As 

 no anal vein or clavus can be seen in the preserved portion of 

 the hemelytron of Bunstaniopsis, this was almost certainly the 

 case. 



In Plate lix., fig. 15, I offer a restoration of the complete 

 hemelytron of Dunstania pulchr a TiW., based upon the preserved 

 portions of the type and of Bunstaniopsis triassica. The poorly 

 preserved Paradunstania ajfinis has not been brought into the 

 discussion at all, and its only use in the restoration is to indicate 

 the course of the wing-border below the tornus. 



It now remains for me to revise my original definition of the 

 family Bunstaniidce in the light of our new knowledge, and to 

 give definitions of the type-genus, and of the two new genera 

 here proposed, and descriptions of the new species. 



Order HEMIPTERA. 

 Suborder Heteroptera. 

 Family DUNSTANIID^. 

 Large bugs, with hemelytra more than 30 mm. long. Hemely- 

 tron suboval, about half as wide as long, the corium either 

 smooth or lightly pitted (hairy), the membrane pitted (hairyj. 



