VII. The Carboniferous Hexapod Insects of Great Britain. 



By Samuel H. Scudder. 



Read May 24, 1882. 



ALTHOUGH it is very nearly fifty years since Audouin first announced the discovery of 

 insect remains in the coal-measures of England, the number of known forms from that 

 country is still so small that they may be counted upon the fingers of one hand. The 

 addition of two species to that number, which I am able through the kindness of Rev. P. 

 B. Brodie to make at the present time, is therefore of more than common significance. 

 Each of these, moreover, has a special interest, the one from its striking color-contrasts, 

 the other from its gigantic size ; and both throw so much new light upon the ancient 

 insect fauna of Great Britain that I venture to pass all the neuropterous forms under 

 review, partly to clear away certain misapprehensions concerning the affinities of those 

 that have been described, partly with the view of vindicating the accuracy of Audouin's 

 early announcement ; partly also in the hope that this may lead to the discovery of more 

 forms in these older beds, where every addition to our knowledge is likely to be of more 

 than ordinary importance. 



Both the additional forms represent genera hitherto unknown, as do also each of those 

 already described. To the first of the new types we may apply the generic name 



Brodia now gen. 



In this genus the wing is long and slender, shaped somewhat as in Panorpa, slightly 

 pedunculated at the base ; the costal margin is nearly straight, being very gently and 

 and equably convex, the lower margin moderately full, straight along the middle portion. 

 The marginal vein forming the border is stout, armed throughout with short prickles or 

 spines (pi. 17, figs. 5, 6). The mediastinal vein is the most indistinct in the wing and situ- 

 ated at a low level (compare pi. 17, fig. 3 and fig. 4) ; it runs midway between and entirely 

 parallel to the marginal and scapular veins until near its extremity, where it turns upward 

 very gently, terminating in the margin at about the middle of the wing. The scapular 

 vein runs parallel to the margin throughout the wing (as preserved; that is, nearly to the 

 tip) and is situated at a high level ; its main branch, which is again at a low level, parts 

 from the vein at an exceedingly slight angle at the end of the basal fifth of the wing, and 

 runs parallel to the main vein, and at a distance from it about equal to the distance of the 

 latter from the margin ; this main branch emits half a dozen or more equidistant, oblique 

 veins from its lower side (five are found in the fragment), which run parallel to each other 



