344 ENTOMOLOGY 



a condition which is never found today, unless the patagia of Lepidop- 

 tera represent wings, which is unlikely. 



Stenodictya lobata (Fig. 306) described by Brongniart from the 

 Upper Carboniferous of Commentry, France, also bears prothoracic 

 " wings" and, in addition, eight pairs of abdominal wing-like or gill-like 

 appendages. No fewer than five families of Palaeozoic insects are 

 represented by specimens having prothoracic wings. 



From the rich deposits of Commentry, Brongniart has described 

 several forms of striking interest. Dictyoneura is a Carboniferous genus 



FIG. 307. Eugereon bockingi. Three quarters natural size. After DOHRN. 



with neuropteroid wings and an orthopteroid body, having, in common 

 with several contemporary genera, strong isopteran affinities. Coryda- 

 loides scudderi, a phasmid, has an alar expanse of twenty-eight inches. 

 The Carboniferous prototypes of our Odonata were gigantic beside their 

 modern descendants, one of them (Meganeura) having a spread of more 

 than two feet; they were more generalized in structure than recent 

 Odonata, presenting a much simpler type of neuration and less differen- 

 tiation of the segments of the thorax. The Carboniferous precursors of 

 our May flies attained a high development in number and variety; in 

 fact, the Ephemeridae, like the Blattidae, achieved their maximum 

 development ages ago, when they attained an importance strongly con- 

 trasting with their present meager representation. 



The Permian has supplied a remarkable genus Eugereon (Fig. 307) 



