672 I'ROCF.EDIXGS OF THE NATIOXAL MUSEUM. voi. xxix. 



GEREPHEMERA Scudder. 

 GEREPHEMERA SIMPLEX Scudder. 



ScuDDEK, Geol. Mag., V, 1858, j>. 174. 



Gerepltfiiurd si)i>ple.r Scudder, Devon. Insects, N. ]i., 1880, ji. 12, pi. i, ligs. 8, 8a. 

 Gercplwrnera Kimph'x Hagen, Bull. Mas. Cmiiii. /ool., VIII (14), 1881, p. 277; 



Zool. Anz., VIIl, 1885, p. 298. 

 Gcrepheinera simplex JiiiO'SGt^iAR'v, Bull. 8oc. Rouen {?>), XXI, 1885, p. 56. 

 Gerepficmcni simplex Uravkr, Anal. Hofmus. Wien, I, 1886, ji. 111. 



Locality. — 8t. John, New Hrun.swick. Little River group; = 

 ? Pottsville. 



Tills is one of the so-called Devonian insects which gave rise to the 

 lively- controversy })etween Scudder and Hagen. The former at lirst 

 regarded it as an ephenierid, ))ut later founded a tUstinct family upon 

 it, which he named ''Atocina,'' and classed with the protophasmids. 

 Hagen, on the other hand, desired to make an odonate of the fossil at 

 any cost, and sought to estaldish this view in several very polemical 

 writings, without, however, attaining the desired result. 



In my opinion, the specimen probably pertains as little to an ephe- 

 nierid as to au odonate or to a protophasmid, but is, how^ever, a dic- 

 tyoneurid-like form with \ery close, irregular intercalaiy veins. 



Family HYPERMEGETHID.E, new family. 



As type of this new family, I take an American form of Palajodic- 

 tyoptera, the gigantic wing of which, even though only half is pre- 

 served, still shows a series of positive characters, which depart 

 sufficiently from the previously mentioned families and disclose 

 important differences in the entire organization of the animal. 



Costa marginal, costal area broad, radius simple, radial sector issu- 

 ing from near the base, immediatel}^ after widel}' branched. Media 

 and cubitus likewise forked near the base, and all crowded into the 

 anterior half of the wing. Anal area not marked off, large, wdth 3 

 forked anal veins wideh^ removed from one another and extending in 

 long flat curves to the inner border. The narrow areas between the 

 veins are bridged over by irregular cross veins; the wider ones are 

 filled up with a quite irregular wide-meshed network. 



HYPERMEGETHES, new genus. 



Costal border almost straight, subcosta approaching close to the 

 radius, so that the costal area attains a considerable width. Radius 

 straight and prol)al)ly not 1)ranciied. Radial sector arising in about 

 the first fourth of the length of the wing, and shortly after its origin 

 immediately divided into a nari'ow fork. Media close to the radius 

 and separated into a long, narrow fork just before the origin of the 

 radial sector. Very near the base of the wing the cuT)itus is divided 



