298 S. H. Scudder — Neiv Carboniferous Insects. 



least into such relations as they always are brought in stridulating 

 Orthoptera ; (2) but it could not be brought at all into contact 

 with the similar part of the opposite wing, the wing-insertions being 

 far apart in Gryllacris, and the supposed file lying at the extreme 

 base of a vein in the middle of the wing ; (3) if this were a stridu- 

 lating organ, it would not only lie in a different area from where it 

 lies in all other Locustarians, but would agree with its place in no 

 other OriJioptera whatever.^ 



The supposed file in Gryllacris being no stridulating apparatus, 

 any comparisons between it and the fossil from this point of view 

 are of course misplaced; but, aside from this, the position and 

 course of the supposed file of the fossil is entirely different from 

 that of the supposed file in Gryllacris, more indeed as it really is in 

 Locustarians. But a careful examination of casts of both obverse 

 and reverse, kindly given me by Mr. Woodward, and which show 

 even more details than are given either by Swinton or Woodward, 

 (as, for instance, the spiny nature of the edge of the costal margin), 

 brings nothing to light which lends any support to this supposition. 



In his comparison of the general neuration of the fossil wing and 

 the modern Gryllacris, Mr. Swinton's language is vague, but his 

 conclusion, though evident, is wholly erroneous. It needs only the 

 figures upon his plate to point out the essential differences in the 

 neuration. In the first place, a distinction of prime importance 

 appears in the marginal vein, which forms the border (and is heavily 

 spined) in the fossil, is widely removed from it in Gryllacris, the 

 margin being formed of a film supported by superior offshoots from 

 the marginal vein, which of course do not exist in the fossil. In 

 Gryllacris, the scapular vein is crowded with a naiTow space, 

 embracing on the margin only the extreme tip of the wing ; while 

 no such contraction appears in the fossil, where the area embraced 

 by this vein must cover the entire apical margin. The externo- 

 median vein of the fossil is closely crowded against the scapular at 

 base, and parts from it beyond with a sweeping curve (as in most 

 Neiiroptera) , appearing as if a branch of it; while in Gryllacris it 

 lies midway between the adjacent veins, and has scarcely the 

 slightest downward tendency, its branches being equally j^arallel 

 instead of divergent. The internomedian vein in the fossil is widely 

 separated on either hand from the adjoining veins ; while in 

 Gryllacris it is equally crowded with the others. Finally, all the 

 branches of the latter, as well as those of the preceding vein, 

 impinge upon the apical maigin in Gryllacris ; while in the fossil 

 they strike the lower border of the wing. 



These differences, many of which separate also most of the 

 families of Orthoptera from those of Neuroptera, prove that the fossil 



1 Previous to the receipt of this paper by the Editor, Mr. K. Etheridge, jun., had 

 occasion to examine Mr. Swinton's figui'ed specimen, contained in the British Museum 

 Collection. Mr. Etheridge is convinced that not the slightest trace of any organ, as 

 figured by Mr. Swinton (Geol. Mag. Dec. II. 1874, Vol. I. Plate XIV. Fig. 3, 

 "file"), exists on the specimen in question. The supposed "stridulating organ " 

 is in fact only a fracture of the surface of the nodule, in which the wing is preserved. 

 This is shown both on the fossil and its counterpart. — Edit. Geol. Mag. 



