280 NEW PERMIAN INSECTS PROM BELMONT^ N.S.W., 



a very interesting new type, described in this paper, which stands in the same 

 relation to the Order Diptera that Belmontia does to the Trichoptera and Lepi- 

 doptera. In addition to these Meeopteroid types, we are now able to record 

 the first discovery of a true Lacewing (Order Neuroptera Planipennia) of 

 Palaeozoic times; this also is dealt with in this paper. The remainder of the 

 fauna consists of Homoptera, both divisions of that Order being represented at 

 Belmont, the Auchenorrhyncha by the Permofulgoridae and Scytinopteridae (the 

 latter not dealt with in this paper) and the Sternorrhyncha by a perfect wing 

 found by Mr. Pincombe, and here dedicated to its discoverer. 



With the exception of a fragment of a large Meeopteroid wing, described 

 in this paper, all the insects so far found at Belmont are of small to medium 

 size, and indicate by far the most highly specialized fanna so far found in any 

 Palaeozoic strata. It would appear to have been a fauna developed in associa- 

 tion with the fern Glossopteris, in which primitive Scorpion-flies took the place 

 of the Cockroaches dominant in the Carboniferous and Permian beds of the 

 Northern Hemisphere, and Plant-hoppers sucked the juices of the fern-stems. 

 As in the ease of the present-day Choristidae, the larvae of the Scorpion-flies 

 probably fed omnivorously on the moist debris scattered on the ground. The 

 discovery of a lacewing of very primitive type shows that the Homoptera 

 already had their enemies; for the larvae of the more primitive Planipennia 

 still feed chiefly on the young of that Order. 



The earliest records of insects occurring in Australia are those from the 

 Upper Permian of Newcastle and Belmont. This enables us to draw the striking- 

 conclusions that Australia became populated with insects long after the Northern 

 Hemisphere, and that the first insect immigrants were not by any means primi- 

 tive types by , comparison, but representatives of the two most highly specialised 

 divisions of the Pterygota j'et evolved, viz. the Hemipteroidea and the Holo- 

 metabola. From this we may conclude that Australia lay far away from the 

 region of the earth in which insects first became evolved. Prom what direction 

 the first insect colonists came it is not possible to say with certainty; but it 

 seems reasonable to assume that they were an oftshoot of the Gondwanaland 

 fauna, and came in with the associated Glossopteris-Qora. 



I should like to express my grateful thanks to Mr. Mitchell for the oppor- 

 tunity of studying and describing these fine fossils, and my admiration of the 

 keenness and energy which still actuates him, at his advanced age, in carrying 

 on the heavy work necessary in the search for them. I also desire to thank Mr. 

 W. C. Davies, Curator of- the Cawthron Institute, for the fine photogTaphs from 

 which Plates xxxiii.-xxxiv. have been prepared. 



Order HOMOPTERA. 



Division AUCHENORRHYNCHA. 



Family PERMOFULGORIDAE. 



Permofulgor indistinctus, n.sp. (Text-fig. 1.) 



A fragment of a forewing, total length 11.5 mm., greatest breadth 3.1 mm. 

 The impression is a very faint one, on pale grey eherty shale. All the veins 

 are very indistinct, except only the vena dividens and the three anal veins; these 

 latter are very stronglj' marked. The species differs from the genotype, P. 

 belmontensis Till, in the following points : — Wing narrower, apparently some- 

 what pointed, though the apex is missing. Only two cubito-anal cross-veins, in- 

 stead of four. Cui with three main branches, and with a very weak oblique 



