220 SCUDDER ON THE CARBONIFEROUS 



very much the larger part of the wing. The internomedian vein, on the contrary, is 

 exceedingly simple, being forked only once (often, in other Mantidae, not at all), and 

 occupies much less space than even the anal area. Now in Lithomantis the case is 

 very different ; the externomedian vein does not divide at all until near the middle, and 

 then only once or twice, its branches covering an area which is certainly much less than a 

 quarter part of the wing ; while the internomedian vein subdivides numerously, no less 

 than eight final nervures reaching the margin, and covering an area, certainly as great as, 

 and apparently considerably greater than, that of the externomedian vein. These singu- 

 lar differences between the Mantidae and Lithomantis, affecting the distribution of the 

 three most important veins of the wing, leave no doubt whatever that the resemblances 

 between the two are only superficial, and that Lithomantis can with no propriety be 

 referred to the Mantidae. 



What place, then, should be assigned to Lithomantis ? I believe we should compare it 

 with certain other paleozoic wings, and notably with " Corydalis Brongniarti " of Man- 

 tell, to which indeed Woodward has himself compared it ; speaking of their "marked simi- 

 larity " and giving at the same time an original figure of this interesting fossil (reproduced 

 in pi. 17, fig. 8). 



The last insect, as I shall show, should be referred, neither to the modern genus Cory- 

 dalis nor to Gryllacris, but is generically distinct from all modern types, and may bear 

 the name of 



Lithosialis Brongniarti. 

 PI. 17, figs. 1, 2, 8, 9. 



This insect is especially interesting from its being the first discovered in paleozoic rocks, 

 and that at a time when, to use the words of Audouin, no fossil insect was known either 

 from the lower oolite, the lias, the keuper, the muschelkalk, or the new red sandstone ; 

 still less in any older rocks. How astonishing then it must have been to find this trace in 

 the coal ! It was at first supposed to be a plant, and as such was sent by Mantell to 

 Brono-niart, with other remains from Shropshire. Brongniart placed it in Audouin' s hands, 

 and he drew attention to it on several occasions, — before the Entomological Society of 

 France, the Academy of Sciences, and the Assembly of German Naturalists at Bonn, 

 asserting its relationship to Neuroptera, where he placed it in the neighborhood of Heme- 

 robius, Semblis, Mantispa, and especially of Corydalis. Mantell accordingly figured it in 

 1839, in his Medals of Creation under the name of Corydalis, adding in the second edition 

 in 1844 the specific name Brongniarti. The figure given by Mantell (reproduced in pi. 

 17, fig. 9) is thoroughly bad, not one of the veins being correctly drawn, and giving an 

 altogether false idea of the wing ; that by Murchison, in the various editions of his " Siluria" 

 (reproduced in pi. 17, fig. 2) is apparently made from the same drawing, and therefore 

 almost equally bad ; the anal veins alone are more correct. 



No further notice appears to have been taken of this wing until, in 1874, Swinton, and 

 again, in 187G, Woodward, gave us new illustrations of it, (cf. pi. 17, figs. 1 and 8) which 

 leave little to be desired. Swinton thought he had discovered the relics of a stridulating 

 organ at the base of the wing, and compared it to similar characteristics alleged to be 



