XEROPTERA OBTUSATA. 87 



off from the main stem is the median with four ultimate divisions, plus a branch to 

 the radial sector, all the rest forming a much-divided cubitus with outer branches. 



If this interpretation is correct, the next veins in the series are anal. Unfor- 

 tunately, these are far too broken and uncertain in character to supply any 

 evidence on the point. The first vein has a bold sweep from the base of the 

 wing 1 well outwards towards the middle of the inner margin, and seems to divide 

 into a wide fork before reaching it. The second vein is simple, and may also fork, 

 but low down, although it is impossible to say whether or no the forked appear- 

 ance is due to a fold of the crumpled wing. If the two veins present are anal, 

 then the anal area is very large, and the divisions of the cubitus are directed so as 

 to lie almost wholly in the distal half of the wing. This appears unlikely. The 

 divisions of the cubitus are usually simple, or but once forked, and usually directed 

 inwards, ending normally on the middle of the wing-margin. The vein is united 

 to the undoubted median stem and has a similar mode of branching, while its 

 position on the margin is in the distal half. I see no reason, therefore, to regard 

 this vein as a cubitus. The next vein, with its bold semicircular sweep to the 

 margin, has the character of a cubitus, and so I regard it. 



The second more incomplete vein may also be a cubital vein or the first anal. 

 The interstitial neuration consists of a numerous series of straight cross-nervures. 



The wing is thin and membranous. 



Affinities. The salient features of this wing include the union of the median 

 with the radial sector and of one branch of the median with another, the con- 

 siderable branching of the median and its extension on to the inner margin, the 

 reduced cubitus, a small anal area and the long spathulate shape of the wing. 



These general characters belong in varying degrees to a group of families, 

 among which may be instanced the (Edischiidae, Sthenaropodidae, Spanioderidae, 

 and Greraridae. The genus* Becquerelia has the same development of the median, 

 and in B. superba, a fusion of an outer branch of the median with the radial 

 sector; but the wing is widest across the anal region, and the cubitus has a 

 correspondingly increased development. 



With Sclnich&rtiella and Gerarus the relationship is perhaps closer, as in these 

 genera the median is large and much divided, and the. cubitus correspondingly 

 reduced. Material differences debar a reference of the specimen to any of these 

 families. J would assign it a position close to (Edischiidae, in which the outer 

 margin is nearly straight, the wing-apex rounded, and the median and radial 

 sector united. Dr. Tilly ard has suggested to me that the wing be cpmpared with 

 his archetype wing of the Panorpoid complex. There certainly appears to be a 

 relationship, but this wing is specialised beyond the archetype, and too fragmentary 

 for definite conclusions to be drawn from it. It cannot be referred to (Edischiidae, 

 however, because in that genus the subcosta is longer, the cubitus shorter, and 

 with fewer twio-s. I have therefore formed for it the new genus Xeroptera. 



