324 Rev. F. D. Morice's Notes on Australian Sawflies. 



"lanceolate cell." The vein which bounds this "cell" 

 interiorly, called by Konow the " humerus," and by 

 Comstock reckoned as a branch (or branches) of the " anal 

 vein," is subject to much modification. It may be visible 

 as running without a break from end to end of the lanceolate 

 cell, and keeping entirely clear of the so-called " brachius " * 

 (sic ! in Konow's nomenclature) which bounds that cell 

 from above. Or it may seem that these veins are in part 

 combined into a single vein, with the result that the 

 lanceolate cell becomes either " longly contracted," or 

 " petiolate." But in no case is a lanceolate cell actually 

 wanting. 



But in several Australian genera, belonging to at least 

 two or three distinct groups, no lanceolate cell whatever 

 can be recognised. And of the genera which possess 

 such a cell, one only — viz. Zenarge, Rohwer — has the cell 

 shaped as in the most typical Arctogaeic genera (Dolerus, 

 Allantus, Tenthredella, etc., etc. In all the others which 

 belong to the Arginae it is " contracted," and in all which 

 are not Arginae it is " petiolate." Here again, we find 

 an agreement between the Notogaeic and Neogaeic Faunas. 

 For. in Neogaea also, the lanceolate cell is wanting in 

 several groups, and when present, is generally either 

 petiolate, or contracted. And here, again, the facts seem 

 rather puzzling. For the latest authorities on such subjects 

 assure us that the venation of Hymenoptera becomes 

 " specialised " by Reduction (i. e. loss of veins) only ! 

 And from this it would seem to follow that in this case 

 the present Arctogaeic Sawflies. which have all retained 

 the " vena humeralis," are more " generalised " and 

 primitive than Perga, Syzygonia, and the other genera 

 which have lost it. Yet, if this and the other abnormal 

 characters of the latter were inherited from very ancient 

 common ancestors — and this seems more likely than that 

 they should have been differentiated independently and 

 vet identically in some half-dozen different genera in two 

 very distant Regions, and in no genus at all anywhere 

 else — it is rather surprising that those ancestors should 

 have had a venation less " generalised " and primitive 

 than that now universal in Arctogaea. 



* Who invented this word I do not know. The nearest approach 

 lo it I can find in Lewis and Short's Latin Dictionary is the in uU r 

 substantive "bracchium* (less correctly "brachiwm" ) with an 

 adjective i 'bracchialis ,, formed from it. 



