294 S. S. Scudder — New Carboniferous Insects. 



offshoots take a longitudinal direction ; while in Brodia the main 

 branch emits oblique shoots at regular intervals downward and 

 outward, as it does in other Planipennia, but not in Panorpina ; the 

 veins below the scapular are also very different from what they are 

 in Panorpina, and relatively to the rest of the wing much less 

 important. 



"With the Hemerohina, the wide space between whose marginal 

 and mediastinal veins is filled with numerous oblique and generally 

 foi'ked veinlets, and whose scapular vein has numerous sectors, this 

 ancient type has less to do. In these, the mediastinal vein extends 

 nearly to the tip of the wing, while in Brodia it terminates a little 

 beyond the middle. The Hemerohina, however, differ from other 

 Planipennia in the insignificant part usually played by the externo- 

 median vein, which is frequently almost entirely simple or only 

 forked once in the apical half of its course. This peculiarity is 

 borrowed, though not in a striking degree, by Brodia, where this 

 vein is forked once about the middle ; but whose branches, widely 

 distant like those of the scapular vein, cover a considerable area. 



The more essential features of this ancient wing, however, fore- 

 shadow the characteristics of the Sialina. In form, while it is not 

 very different, it has none of the arching of the costa almost 

 universal among Sialina, and usually accompanied in modern types 

 by a broad space between the marginal and mediastinal veins, not at 

 all displayed by Brodia. In the brevity of the mediastinal vein 

 Brodia resembles the Baphidians, but the neuration of the rest of 

 the wing is completely different, while in the Sialids proper the 

 mediastinal vein always continues nearly to the tip of the wing. 

 The course and distribution of the branches of the scapular vein, 

 however, are of greater importance, and in this respect Brodia 

 agrees very well with the Sialina ; again, however, the simplicity 

 of the internomedian vein in Brodia, where it consists of only a 

 single undivided ray, is very different from that now found in 

 Sialids, where it is always divided and often plays a somewhat 

 important part. 



Brodia, then, is a Planipennian in a broad sense, refusing to 

 affiliate closely with the restricted families of the present day. Nor 

 does it appear to be intimately related to any Palaeozoic insect yet 

 described. It is also peculiar for possessing a very large number of 

 fine cross-veins or wrinkles, besides the stout cross-veins which are 

 scattered here and there over the wing ; the latter are, however, 

 confined to dark patches to be mentioned presently ; while the 

 former are uniformly distributed over the wing, subequidistant, and 

 always run at right angles to the nervures they connect, even where, 

 by keeping that course, they strike the often obliquely directed, 

 stouter cross-veins. 



In the preservation of its colours, Brodia is the most striking 

 instance known among Palasozoic insects ; the markings are sharply 

 defined, and, to judge from Brongniart's illustrations, more deeply 

 tinted than in Protophasma Dumasi, which he has described in 

 this Magazine,' and elsewhere. The stone on which the wing of 

 1 Geol. Mag. 1879, p. 97, PL IV. 



