ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 457 
‘ment of the cells below Cu, where two or three large penta- 
al areas were marked out by stronger veins. On the whole, 
r, there did not seem to be any reason why the fossil 
‘not go in Basiaeschna, and it could certainly not go in 
ay of the other genera, unless it were Acschna of the type of 
this point the other half of the wing was found, and it 
‘Was seen at once that the radial sector was branched, throwing 
‘it decisively out of Basiaeschna, and into Aeschna or some 
| closely related genus. Further investigation showed that 
_ it was in fact the hind wing of Aeschna solida Scudder, based 
on a single anterior wing. Another front wing of Ae. solida 
was found by Mr. S. A. Rohwer in 1907 (Station 14, Floris- 
- Sant). I would not have recited the above merely to record 
the birth and carly death of a mistaken idea; it is given be- 
cause it seems to be really significant in relation to the evolu- 
ee Seve insects. Dr. Needham (Proc. U. S. Natl. Mu- 
xxvi. p. 735) writes that in Aeschna and its nearest 
S: 
"Phere is this added feature—the radial sector has become 
forked. It will be observed that the anterior branch of this 
fork is separated from vein M , by a single row of cells, and 
th; in the same place in Basiaeschna there is a line of cross- 
=» veins tending to straighten out. The anterior branch of the 
fork is developed out of this line of cross-veins. In the Austral- 
ee * suee of ib oe 
may be found in a series of specimens.” 
_ The study of other features of the wing shows that Basiae- 
has indeed much in common with Aeschna, so that they 
doubtless stand together as the connecting links of the 
oe with branched and unbranched radial sectors. 
In Aeschna itself, however, we have two types of branching 
ee eadial sector. In Ae. juncea, Ae. constricta and the fos- 
sil Ae. solida, the upper branch comes off from the lower quite 
t abruptly, and has all the appearance of being but a branch. In 
Ae. californica and in Coryphaeschna the effect is reversed, 
and the upper branch actually appears to be the continuation 
~ 
