180 [Angiist, 



(pi. vii, fig-. 11), and those of E. consimilis are very similar. How the 

 sperm finds the way to the spermatheca I have no idea, as there appears 

 to be notliiug but the short broad sac figured by Muir, I.e. The copula 

 is of unusual duration. I have in one pair observed it to last quite 40 

 hours, and it may have been much longer as the pair Avas coupled when 

 captured. 



Brockenhurst : 



July 15th, 1916. 



NOTE ON SOME FOSSIL INSECTS. 

 BY EDWARD MEYRICK, B.A., F.R.S. 



A paper on Mesozoic and Tertiary Insects of Queensland and 

 New South Wales has lately appeared as Publication No. 258 of the j 

 Queensland Geological Survey ; the descriptions of the insects (accom- 

 panied by nine plates) are by Mr. E. J. Tillyard (Science Res;earch 

 Scholar in the University of Sydney) , to whom I am indebted for a 

 copy, together with a i-equest that, if I thought fit, I would publish 

 some remarks on the single specimen (the most perfect and striking 

 of all) which, with the support of Dr. A. Jefferis Turner, he has 

 refei-red to the Lepidoptera. This is described and figured under the 

 name of Dunstania 'pulchra, and regarded as representing a new Family. 



The specimen in question was obtained from the Ipswich Coal 

 Measures in Queensland, assigned to the Upper Triassic, and would 

 therefore be the most ancient Lepidopteron known ; associated with it 

 were various insects referred to the Blattoidea, Protortlioptera, Coleo- 

 ptera, Odonata, Mecoptera, and Heniiptera, together with an abundant 

 flora, chiefly consisting of ferns. It is therefore obviously of the 

 greatest interest. It consists of a nearly complete hind-wing of very 

 Lepidopterous appearance, which, on the assumption of its Lepido- 

 pterous nature, may be briefly described in the usual Lepidopterous 

 terminology as under, viz. : 20 mm. in length, ovate, without frenulum, 

 base of costa not prominent, cell shorter than ^ of wing, 2 from near 

 base, with strong bar downwards from before its middle (Imt dorsal 

 area with veins la-lc missing), transverse vein absent between 3 and 4, 

 but 4 running to base of wing, 5 from upper angle, 6 and 7 from 

 upper margin of cell, 5 and 6 coincident on posterior half so as to 

 enclose a long narrow secondaiy cell, 7 to about apex, 8 free ; mem- 

 brane between veins densely strewn with minute pits, supposed to 



