LITTLR EIVER GROUP, No. II. 97 



2. Protophasmida. — Ancient walking-sticks. 

 Sec. 2. Neuropteroidea.' 



1. Platj'phemeridpe. — Ancient Mayiiies. Platypbemera antiqua. — Little River group. 



2. Homothetidse. — Iloniotlietus tbssilis [and Honiothetus erutus, G. F. M.] — Little 



River group. 



3. Palieopterina. — Carbouit'erou.s (no " older " species). 



4. XenoueuridîB. — Xenoueura antiquorum (sole species), Little River group. 



5. Hemeristina. — Lithentoraum Harttii [and Geroneura Wilsoni, G. F. M.] 



6. Gerarina. — Carboniferous (no older species). 



Sec. 3. Heraipteroidie. — Ancient bugs (3 genera, Permian and C-arbouifcrous). 

 Sec. 4. Coleopteroidea. — Ancient beetles ; indicated by borings in fossil wood, Carboniferous 

 and later. 



It is somewhat remarkalde that the Protophasmidse, or ancient walking-sticks, so 

 abundant in the Carboniferous beds of Commentry, in France, have not been recognized l)y 

 Dr. Scudder in the insect fauna of St. John. The condition of accumulation and preserva- 

 tion are similar to those found to have prevailed during the growth of the coal seams in 

 Carbonifercius times, and we would naturally look for the presence of a family of insects 

 which was well represented in the rocks of this formation in France and elsewhere. Perhaps 

 in the Homothetidfe we have the ancestral forms of the Walking-sticks. 



It 18 noteworthy that no second individual of a species of the insects of the Little River 

 group has been found, and yet at least eight species have been recovered ; this indicates an 

 unknown wealth of forms among the tlying creatures of that time, even if we assume that some 

 of the described insect wings, may have been the front and hind wings of one species. 



Amendation of the Description of Geroneura Wilsoni.'^ — While referring to these old 

 insect wings the author may here suggest a possible improvement in the nomenclature of this 

 wing of Geroneura Wilsoni. On comparison with other wings the author is led to think that 

 the vein called the sub-externomedian should be denominated the interno-median ; that called 

 the interno-median will then become the first anal vein and the anal area will be of more 

 importance than as originally described. 



ARACHNOIDA. 



The occurrence of fossils representing several species of animals allied to the scorpions, 

 has been reported and remarked upon as instances of the very early occurrence in time of 

 air-breathing animals. Thorrell has divided them into two groups, those which have the 

 céphalothorax truncated in front like the modern scorpions and those wliich have it produced. 

 All the Palaeozoic scorpions belong to the latter. This sub-order of the scorpions (Anthra- 

 coscorpii) is divided into two families, of which one contains the Silurian scorpions of 

 Europe, and the other those of America, as well as all the forms found in the Carboniferous 

 deposits of Europe and North America. The more ancient family, that to which Thorrell 

 gives the name of Palaeophonidae, contains the species found at St. John. 



' Gerephemera gimplez and Dyscritm vetuslm, both belonging to the Neuropteroidea, are badly preserved. 

 Perhaps for this reason Dr. Scudder has not referred them to any of the six families which he has established 

 in this section. 



■ Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., vol. vi., sec. iv., p. 58. 



Sec. IV., 1894. 13. 



