94 



THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



afford much clue to the history of living groups ; early mesozoic fossils^ 

 so far as found in this country, represent the least specialized of modern 

 orders. In other parts of the world, cretaceous insects are also extremely 

 scarce ; of Homoptera, excepting some very dubious gall-like objects on 

 Eucalyptus leaves, there is only a single specie=î, the cicadid Hylceoiieura 

 lignei Lameere and Severian, from Belgium. The first American cretaceous 

 Homopteron has just been found by Mr. Terry Dace in the Pierre form- 

 ation at Lesser's brickyard, Boulder, Colorado. There is no doubt about 

 the formation, as the specimen is in the same piece of rock as the char- 

 acteristic mollusc Scaphiies nodosus Owen. The formation is marine, but 

 it was evidently laid down close to land, and the insect doubtless fell or 

 was washed into the sea. 



Petropteron mirandum^ n. g., n. sp. 

 A tegmen or upper wing, the part preserved 1)^2, mm. long, the 

 actual length probably about 9^^ ; width near the middle about 41^ ; 

 shape subtriangular, broadly widening apically \ veins strong, reddish 

 brown, membrane apparently strong, no markings of any kind ; venation 

 as shown in the figure, the interpretation given being scarcely open to 

 doubt, with the possible exception of the first anal, which may be in 



Fig, 4. — Petropteron tnirandum, n. sp. 



reality the inferior branch of the cubitus ; there is no sign of a free first 

 anal. There are two series of gradate veins, the inner placed somewhat 

 as in Dicranotropis, the outer much as in the eocene genus Eofulgorella, 

 and many living forms. The closed anal cell is normal for many Homop- 

 tera, and is exactly as in the European cretaceous Hylœoneura. The 

 lower branch of the subcosta, although bulging in the direction of the 

 radius near the beginning of the first series of gradate veins, is not con- 

 nected with it by any cross-vein at this point. The triangular cell in the 

 branches of the cubitus, contiguous with the first gradate series, finds a 

 parallel in Kirkaldy's "restored" figure of Aneoîio. The basal union of 

 cubitus and first anal is as in Scolypopa. 



I suppose the insect to be a Fulgorid, and this possibility is sup- 

 ported by the occurrence of Fulgoridfie in the older Purbeck Beds of 



