740 PERMIAN AND TRIASSIC INSECTS FROM N.S.W., 



recent Mecoptera, the short basal pieces of Cu^ and Cug, from 

 the cubital fork up to the point of fusion, tend to become per- 

 pendicular to the veins with which they junction, and so have 

 at last assumed the appearance of mere cross-veins. 



In concluding the account of this interesting fossil genus, I 

 think that it may be reasonably claimed that Permochorista 

 differed very little, either in its structure or its life-history, from 

 tlie archaic genus Tceniochorista still existing in Australia at 

 the present day. 



The bearing of these Permian Mecoptera, and the still more 

 archaic type, Archipanorpa, from the Ipswich Trias, on the 

 problem of the origin of the Holometabolous insects as a whole, 

 must be left to a later paper. It is only necessary to remark 

 here, that the existence of a more archaic form {Archipanorya) 

 at a later horizon (Upper Triassic) need not cause us any sur- 

 prise or misgivings. At the present day, we have in North 

 America a species, Merope tuber, which is in many ways more 

 archaic than even Permochorista; while, in the same region, 

 there flourish the highly specialised types of the BittacidcB and 

 the wingless Boreidce. The direct ancestors of Archipanorpa 

 must have existed in the Permian, alongside Permochorista, and 

 must have also been in existence long before this latter genus 

 became evolved. In the finding of a few fossil types from two 

 horizons in the Permian and Trias, from faunas that were pro- 

 bably highly complex in their composition, chance has happened 

 to put into our hands one of the oldest types from the later 

 horizon; whereas, from the earlier horizon, we have, in Permo- 

 chorista, probably one of the most advanced insect-types of the 

 a^e. One might, as a parallel, think of the possibility, at the 

 present day, of finding a Butterfly-wing in the Miocene strata 

 at Florissant, and a few days later picking up a much more 

 archaic Hepialid-wing from the ground where it had just fallen. 

 The amount of incongruity in both cases would be very much the 

 same. 



iii. Permian hisects Incertce Sedis. 



Specimen No. 25— An insect- wing with beautifully preserved 

 Qutline, 10 mm. long by 3-3 mm. wide, with anterior and pos- 



