CLASSIFICATION OF PALEOZOIC INSECTS. 333 



and together forming a very distinct and characteristic feature having no sort of coun- 

 terpart in Palaeopterina. 



Most of the genera agree in the structure of the internomedian vein; but in one (Stre- 

 phocladus) it is remarkable for throwing off its offshoots from its superior, and not inferior, 

 side ; while another type (Aethophlebia), which we have placed at the end of the series, is 

 very 'remarkable throughout, though it would seem to fall in this place. 



Miamia Bronsoni Dana. 



Miamia Bronsoni Dana, Amer. Journ. Sc, (2), xxxvn, 34-35, fig. (1864). 

 Mnzon Creek, Morris, Grundy Co., 111. 



Propteticus (•"•put, itttjtiko's) gen. nov. 



Body apparently flattened, of moderate size, the thorax very broad but narrowing in 

 front of the wings, the reduction falling on the mesothorax, the prothorax and head 

 being narrow and prolonged. Abdomen apparently similarly slender. Mouth parts formed 

 of a spreading tuft of organs extended in front of the head and in the same plane. Legs 

 obscure but apparently rather long and slender, and increasing in size in passing back- 

 ward. Wings large, full, oval, of nearly equal breadth excepting at extremities, at rest 

 considerably overlapping the abdomen ; the scapular vein prominently elevated, widely 

 distant from the margin in the basal half of the wing, gradually approaching it in the dis- 

 tal half where the mediastinal vein soon falls into it, and terminating in the margin just 

 before the tip ; it has a single inferior branch arising near the base, which divides beyond 

 the middle into two apically forked or simple branches. The externomedian vein divides at 

 base into two long curved branches either simple or apically forked, which, with the 

 branches of the scapular, occupy the whole of the apex of the wing. ' The internomedian 

 and internal veins occupy nearly half of the wing, the former the outer and probably larger 

 portion, with nearly straight, oblique, rather distant, simple veins. Straight or curved cross 

 veins are scattered over the whole wing. 



Like Miamia, this genus has a remarkable aspect from the narrowness of the head and 

 prothorax as compared with the rest of the body. The mesothorax is broader than long 

 and narrows rapidly, so as to be less than half as broad in front as behind, while the head and 

 prothorax, each longer than broad, are parallel sided. Since the mouth-parts project for- 

 ward in the same plane, the prolongation of the parts in front of the base of the wings is 

 excessive, being considerably more than half as long as the body behind the front base of 

 the wings, and perhaps as great as the extension of the abdomen behind the posterior base 

 of the hind wings. The wings are ample and apparently folded upon the back as in mod- 

 ern Sialina. The hind wings appear to have been of the same general shape or a little 

 broader, but without any special fulness of the anal area ; this point, however, is very 

 obscure from the imperfection of the fossil. 



The genus differs from Miamia in the even greater slenderness of the head and protho- 

 rax, the anterior prolongation and tapering of the mesothorax, the larger anal appendages, 

 and particularly in the neuration of the wings; viz., in the wider marginal field in advance 

 of the scapular veins of the front wings, the arcuate course of the same vein, the much 



