748 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



even more obliquely placed, similar in fore and hind wing, without 

 the dividino- ci'oss vein, and also without the basal cross vein, so that 

 the quadrangle is confluent with the basal space, much as in the fore 

 wing of fig. 38. The space between veins M^ and M^ is narrower also, 

 with a difl'erent arrangement of interpolated sectors. These characters 

 are well shown" l)v Dr. Hagen, to whom we owe our best knowledge ■ 

 of these remarkable forms. 



B. Aqrionhhe. — This family is in essential agreement in all those \ 

 venational characters which are most fundamental. The tendency ' 

 throughout is toward extreme reduction of the anal area, making the 

 wing "petiolate," and toward the matching of cross veins in trans- 

 verse lines. The antenodal cross veins are almost alwaj'S reduced to > 

 two. The nodus is greatly retracted and the quadrangle approxi- 

 mated to it. The media does not descend the arculus. 



Lcstincr. — This group is quite unique in its own family in one char- 

 acter that has been already indicated, the radial sector fuses with vein 

 il/g for a long space, and an oblique vein and a ver}^ long bridge, reach- 



FiG. 37.— Wing of Majaloprepus ceruleatus Drury. 



ing more than halfwa}' from the nodus to the arculus, are preserved. 

 Nodus and quadrangle are but moderatel}^ approximated, and the match- 

 ing of cross veins seems only begun (see Plates LI, figs. 6 and 7, and 

 LIII, fig. 1). 



Anormosttgmatini. — In this curious group the radial sector leaves 

 vein M^ at the subnodus, and nodus and quadrangle are quite approxi- 

 mate. The part of the wing beyond the nodus becomes very greatly 

 enlarged. The stigma is never braced; on the other hand, it becomes 

 difi'use or is lost. Cross veins fall into transverse lines over a consid- 

 erable part of the wing (Plate LI, fig. 8), especially in the smaller 

 species, and interpolated longitudinal sectors in Megaloprcpm (fig. 87) 

 and Microstigma become attached to principal veins, of which they 

 then appear as branches. In the space between veins M^ and J/, the 

 longest sector parallels vein 31^. Here the retraction of the nodus 

 toward the base of the wing and the migration of. the base of vein 

 J/, outward toward the stigma have attained their maximum. These 

 are among the most grotesquely specialized of living insects.^ 



« PaUeontographica, XV, 1866, pi. ii. 



''Since this paper was written the venation of the genus Thaumatoneuria has 

 become known to mo thrnngli Dr. Calvert's figures (Biol. Centr. Amer., Neur., pi. 



