296 8. H. Sciidder — Neic Carboniferous Insects. 



position of Litliomantis carhonarius and Corydalis Brongniarti, the 

 " marked similarity " of which Mr. Woodward himself points out, 

 figiu-ing them side by side in describing the former. 



Mr. Woodward is assuredly mistaken in i-eferring Lithomantis to 

 " the neighbourhood of the MantidcB," notwithstanding that he 

 supports himself by the adherence to his views of such able ento- 

 mologists as Messrs. Westwood, Waterhouse and M'Lachlan, who 

 can hardly have made a serious study of the neuration. It bears 

 indeed a vague resemblance to that of the Ifantidce, excepting in 

 the hind wings, where the fullness of the anal area, with its special 

 development of folding rays in the insect of to-day, need not be 

 looked for in its less specalized ancestor ; but when the elements of 

 the neuration are examined, the resemblance is seen to be purely 

 superficial. Then it appears that Lithomantis agrees with other 

 ancient types, and not at all with the Mantidte. The front wing of 

 the Mantidce has a very peculiar and characteristic neuration. The 

 marginal vein forms the front border of the wing, as I believe it 

 never does in any saltatorial Orthoptera, and always does in the 

 Neuroptera. The mediastinal vein is simple, and runs in close 

 proximity to the scapular, terminating near the tip of the wing. 

 So far there is nothing essentially different from the condition of 

 things in Lithomantis ; but in the next three veins all is different. 

 To use the specific example (Blepharis domina of Africa) given by 

 Mr. Woodward : the scapular vein is perfectly simple as far as the 

 extreme tip, when it divides into three very short nervules support- 

 ing the apical margin. In Lithomantis, however, it emits a stout 

 inferior branch near the middle of the wing, which runs parallel or 

 nearly parallel to the main vein, and probably (if it is like its allies 

 of the time) sends off several branches to the lower apical margin. 

 As this is one of the principal veins of the wing, differences which 

 occur here are significant, and there is hardly any grouj) of insects 

 which has so unimportant a scapular vein as the Mantidce. The 

 differences are even more striking in the next two veins, better 

 preserved in the fossil. In Blepharis (and it is much the same in all 

 MantidcB) the externomedian vein is divided at base into two main 

 stems, the upper of which runs in close proximity to the scapular, 

 and in the outer half of the wing sends downward three or four 

 conspicuous oblique veins, which appear at first glance precisely as 

 if they were offshoots of the scapular, which they are not at all ; 

 they only perform the office of such offshoots in other wings ; the 

 lower branch takes an irregularly longitudinal course below the 

 upper branch, and emits similar veinlets to the lower margin ; and 

 the entire area occupied by the two branches of this vein and their 

 offshoots covers very much the larger part of the wing. The 

 internomedian vein, on the contrary, is exceedingly simple, being 

 forked only once (often, in other Ifantidm, not at all), and occupies 

 much less space than even the anal area. Now in Lithomantis the case 

 is very different; the externomedian vein does not divide at all until 

 near the middle, and then only once or twice, its branches covering 

 an area which is certainly much less than a quarter part of the wing, 



