SOME NEW PERMIAN INSECTS FROM BELMONT, N.S.W., IN THE 

 COLLECTION OF MR. JOHN MITCHELL. 



By R. J. TiLLYAED, M.A., Sc.D. (Cantab.), D.Se. (Sydney), C.M.Z.S., F.L.S., 



F.E.S. 



(Plates xxxiii.-sssiv. and six Text-figures.) 

 [Read 2Sth June, 1922.] 



In a previous paper (Tliese Proceedings, slii., pt. 4, 1917, pp. 729-741) I 

 described the first insects discovered by Mr. Mitchell in the Upper Permian Insect 

 Beds of Belmont, consisting of a, single genus and species belonging to the new 

 family Permofulgoridae, of the Order Homoptera, and one genus and two species 

 belonging to the new family Permochoristidae, of the Order Mecoptera. In 

 another paper (These Proceedings, xliv., pt. 2, 1919, pp. 231-256) I also described 

 a remarkable wing, also discovered at Belmont by Mr. Mitchell, which forms 

 the type of a new Order Paramecoptera, ancestral to the Trichoptera and Lepi- 

 doptera; this insect was named Belmontia mitchelK. Since that time, Mr. Mit- 

 chell has visited Belmont on a number of occasions, and has recently been ac- 

 companied by his friends Mr. and Mrs. T. H. Pincombe of New Lanibton. The 

 result of these excursions has been that a considerable area of the strata around 

 the original finds has been thoroughly investigated, and a number of insect 

 wings have been unearthed. The present paper deals with those added to Mr. 

 Mitchell's Collection prior to my recent visit to Belmont in November, 1921. 

 Further finds made during and since that visit will be dealt with in a later 

 paper. 



An analysis of the Insect Fauna of Belniont can now be made, on a basis 

 of some twenty wings discovered to date. This shows that the dominant insect 

 type there was undoubtedly a family of Scorpion-flies, the Permochoristidae, 

 which are very closely allied to our existing Australian Scorpion-flies of the 

 family Choristidae, and especially to the genus Taeniocliorista E.-P., which is 

 to be found around the shores of Lake Macquarie at the present day. Nearly 

 one-half of the specimens of insect wings unearthed at Belmont to date consists 

 of examples belonging to this family. In association with these are two other 

 Meeopteroid types, viz. Belmontia Till., placed in the Order Paramecoptera, and 



