Preliminary notes on the importance of the 
new family « Urothripidee » BAGNALL 
in the study of the « Thysanoptera », 
by RICHARD SIDDOWAY BAGNALL (Penshaw). 
Urothrips paradoxus BAGNALL (1), the type of the family Uro- 
thripide, is a small, recently discovered Ethiopian Insect, which, 
whilst clearly belonging to the 7Aysanoptera, differs in many 
important features from all the known forms. 
Before its importance can be appreciated, however, we must 
briefly outline some of the chief characters of the order Z’hysano- 
ptera as recognized before the discovery of the primitive Urothrips. 
Thus in both the sub-orders 7erebrantia and Tubulifera, every 
known form without exception has the maxillary and labial palpi 
never less than two-segmented; the intermediate pair of coxe 
always more widely separated than either the anterior or posterior 
pairs, whilst they possess four pairs of stigmata, and in some 
species of the Zerebrantia the metathoracic pair is either very 
small, vestigial or sometimes apparently absent altogether. 
Urothrips differs sharply in the following characters : the maxill- 
ary and labial palpi are each composed of but a single joint, the 
apparent division of the maxillary palpus being an oblique series 
(1) BAGNALL. « Annales Musei Nationalis Hungarici», 1600, VII, pl. III, 
PP. 125-136. 
