﻿48" 



MR. H. BOLTON ON SOME INSECTS 



[vol. lxxii, 



for a short distance, and then bends sharply inwards from the 

 median, passing back in the direction of the middle of the inner 

 margin of the wing. A rapidly-widening triangular area is thus 

 left between the anterior cubital vein and the median. 



The inner cubital vein pursues an oblique course from its point 

 of origin inwards to the wing-margin, and is widely spaced out 

 from the anterior branch. The forwardly-directed twig, which 

 has been already mentioned, forms a sigmoidal curve reaching the 

 anterior branch of the cubital vein about the middle of its present 

 length, probably at the end of the first third of the total length. 



Sis anal veins are present, all of which pass obliquely downwards 

 to the inner margin. The second and third anal veins fork before 

 reaching the wing-margin. The intercalary venation consists of 

 relatively-large reticulations in the middle areas of the wing, 

 that is, between the median and the cubital veins ; while, in the 

 area between the radial sector and the median, the veins cross in 

 curved lines with no very evident reticulation. The intercostal 

 area bears a few faint cross-veins passing obliquely outwards from 

 the sub-costa to the wing-margin. 



Affinities. — With so small a wing-fragment, it is not possible 

 to form an accurate idea of the whole structure. It is evident 

 that the radius and the radial sector ran out upon the anterior 

 half of the wing-tip, if they did not occupy the whole of it. The 

 median probably curved inwards, reaching the inner margin near 

 the apex of the Aving ; while the branches of the cubital and the 

 anal veins occupied most, or all, of the inner wing-margin. 



The character of the broad intercostal area and the course of the 

 sub-costa, are very similar to what is found in Polycreagra elegans 

 Handlirsch ; but the main features of the wing are of a simpler 

 type, and the intercalary venation is wholly different. 



The reticulate intercalary venation and the character of the 

 principal veins, which do not show much trace of division in the 

 inner third of the wing preserved, are undoubtedly Dictyoneuroid. 



Instead of creating a new genus upon this wing-fragment, 

 it seems preferable to follow the example of Handlirsch in his 

 ' Revision of American Palaeozoic Insects ' and style the specimen 

 ' (Dictyoneuron) ,' retaining the specific name of Mgginsi. 



Type -specimen in the Derby & Mayer Museums, Liverpool. 



Locality. — Ravenhead railway-cutting, near St. Helens. 



Horizon. — Middle Coal Measures. 



Paljeomantis maceopteea, gen. et sp. nov. (PI. Ill, figs. 3 & 4.) 



The late Rev. H. H. Higgins, in his Presidential Address to 

 the Liverpool Field Naturalists' Club, 1871 (p. 18), thus records 

 the discovery of this specimen : — 



' Perhaps the finest and most remarkable fossil found in the Pavenhead 

 cutting was obtained by a son of Mr. J. P. G. Smith, of Liverpool, who, with 

 a young friend, Mr. Clementson, from Rugby, visited the cutting several 

 times. It was the wing of a large insect, beautifully preserved in a nodule 

 of ironstone.' 



