MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 279 



a family allierl to the Sialina. A small basal vein considered to he 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, Homothetidse, 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 a horny basal part, ending in front in a straight line; here a softer mem- 

 brane connects the wing with the basal part. AVhen broken off here — and the 

 formerly published figure makes this more evident — the basal vein is ex- 

 plained. Some Hemerobidae 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 tj-pe, 

 excepting a smaller number of transversals. 



Xenoneura antiquorum. 



I have examined the type of Fig. 7. This is the interesting Aving which was 

 formerly supposed to exhibit at the base a character to be comjiared 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 ]>laced 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 con.spicuous, — 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 



