AMERK 'AX I '. 1 L EOZOK ' IXSECTS— lIANDLIRhiCH. 



715 



The veins ure much more numerous than in )nost other forms of 

 this order, but through overlapping and folding are so confused that 

 from this example an interpretation is scarcely possible. 



Scudder likewise considered this fossil a "" neuropteroid '' form and 

 })laced it in the gerarins. 



IIolotype.—Qv,i. No. 38144, LJ.S.N.M. 



POLYETES, new genus. 

 POLYETES FURCIFER, new species. 



Locality. — Mazon Ci'eek, near Morris, Illinois. Pennsylvanian; 

 Kittanning^ (Allegheny) stage. 



Front wing, 21 mm. long, broadly elliptical, with rounded apical 

 margin. The subcosta may have attainted about two-thirds the length 

 of the wing. The radius 

 is simple and somewhat 

 recurved toward the end; 

 near the base of the wing- 

 it sends out the sector, 

 which is divided into 5 

 l)ranches. The media 



1 i ke wise separates near 

 the base of the wing into 



2 main })ranches, each of 

 which again divides into 3 bi-anchlets. The twigs of the inferior 

 branch, as well as those of the cubitus, proceed to the inner margin. 

 The anal area may have been small and permits the recognition of 

 several veins extending to the posterior border. Cross veins irregular, 

 occasionally recticulate. Front and hind wings had a similar neura- 

 tion and were folded over the rather slender abdomen. The ]»r() 

 thorax appears to have been of moderate size. 



I believe that this fossil may yet be brought into relation primarily 

 with Cltcliphld)la. Perhaps in just this form we must seek for the 

 connecting link between the Blattceformia series and the Palseodic- 

 tyoptera. 



Ilolotype.—Ocii. No. 38S23, U.S.N.M. 



Order BLATTOIDEA Handlirsch. 



Scudder has attempted to separate, as an order, the Paleozoic ))lat- 

 toids from the later fossil and recent forms. In my opinion (which 

 moreover agrees with that of several authors), such a separation, 

 however, is not practicable, because no sharply diti'erentiating charac- 

 ters exist, and those selected are in no wise valid. The fusion of the 

 anal veins in the inner margin, on the one hand, still occurs in recent 

 forms, as well as the independence of the principal veins from each 



Fk;. 39.— Polyktes furcifer. 



