MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 279 
a family allied to the Sialina. A small basal vein considered to be homologous 
with the arculus of the Odonata induced him to consider the specimen as a 
connecting link between the Neuroptera and Pseudoneuroptera. Therefore 
a new synthetic family, Homothetidæ, is proposed. 
It is obvious that the wing belongs to the Sialina, and is perhaps a fore wing. 
But then the basal vein is easily explained. The fore wings of Corydalis pos- 
sess à horny basal part, ending in front in a straight line; here a softer mem- 
brane connects the wing with the basal part. When broken off here — and the 
formerly published figure makes this more evident — the basal vein is ex- 
plained. Some Hemerobidæ show an arrangement similar to the arculus, 
without giving us a right to consider them as a synthetic type. The fossil 
fragment recalls some of the figures published long ago by Westwood as be- 
longing to a genus but little known, Orthophlebia, related to Corydalis, but the 
living species possess a larger number of transversals. Perhaps some of the 
restored connections in the missing parts of the wing will have to be trans- 
ferred in another way. A more exact determination cannot be made; we may 
state, however, that the fragment shows nothing foreign to the Corydalis type, 
excepting a smaller number of transversals. 
Xenoneura antiquorum. 
I have examined the type of Fig. 7. This is the interesting wing which was 
formerly supposed to exhibit at the base a character to be compared only to the 
stridulating organ of some male saltatorial Orthoptera. The wing seems to 
have been very delicate, and is a very difficult object. I have not seen the 
type of Fig. 6, and Fig. 5 (p. 41) is stated to be a composite drawing made up 
from both specimens. The “small fragment at the extremity of the anal vein 
and the cross vein,” and “the larger apical piece with part of the lower margin,” 
are drawn from the reverse. Both are to be seen in the obverse (type of 
Fig. 7), but not so distinctly. The whole wing is shown by numerous par- 
allel and very close longitudinal lines to have been placed beneath or above 
some part of a plant; on account of these lines some parts of the venation are 
less distinguishable. What is more important is, that the wing of the opposite 
side is lying upon the one which is figured, not exactly in the same direction, 
but nearly so. Its hind margin is a little below the hind margin of the main 
wing. This fact is not mentioned by the author. The quadrangular part of 
the hind margin, enclosed. in the figure by broken lines, belongs to the upper 
wing, of which the sectors are elevated ; the corresponding sectors of the main 
wing are depressed. This fact once accepted, we find some small remains of the 
upper wing on the basal part of the main wing near the scapularis, where the fork 
(of the author) is to be seen. The difficulty increases on account of the cross 
veins of the marginal field (Fig. 5); one of them, about the middle of the wing, 
is very conspicuous, — I may say, considering the delicacy of the other parts of the 
venation, too conspicuous. Indeed, examined with the compound microscope, 
this vein projects outside the margin as much as a quarter of the breadth of the 
