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FROM THE BRITISH COAL MEASURES. 



53 



meshwork of polygonal cells. The genus is probably one which 

 has been developed from ancestors belonging to the family 

 Dictyoneuridee in the direction of Lithomantis. 



To the species I give the name ma crop t era, 1 and define it as 

 follows : — Wings twice as long as broad. Apex bluntly rounded. 

 Divisions of radial sector occupying almost the whole tip of the 

 wing. Cubital and anal veins weak. 



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



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



Horizon. — Middle Coal Measures. 



SpTLAPTERA STTTCLIFEEI, Sp. UOV. (PI. IV, fig. 1.) 



Among the various organisms obtained from nodules from a 

 stratum a little above the Arley Mine in the Middle Coal Measures 

 at Sparth Bottoms, Rochdale (Lancashire), is a small, irregular, 



Fig. 4. — Restoration of the left wing of Spilaptera sutcliffei, 

 sp. iiov. (Natural size.) 



micaceous sandy nodule containing the basal portion of an insect- 

 wing. Owing to the coarse granular structure of the nodule, the 

 finer details of the wing- structure are not so well preserved as is 

 usually the case. The chief veins of the wing are robust struc- 

 tures, and these are, fortunately, well marked and clear. 



The portion of wing preserved is 35 millimetres in length along 

 the costal margin. Its greatest width is 27 mm. ; but, as the 

 inner margin is not present, the total width of the base of the wing 

 must have exceeded 30 mm. The wing is a left wing. A little 

 more than a third of it is preserved, and the total length of 

 the whole wing (when complete) must have been at least 90 mm. 

 The insect must, therefore, have had a spread of wing of nearly 

 200 mm., or about 8 inches. 



The costal margin is very feebly convex forward, forming, 

 indeed, almost a straight line. The sub-costa runs somewhat 

 parallel to the costal margin, and is sunk in a groove. It gradu- 

 ally approaches the costal margin distally, but to so slight an 

 extent as to render it fairly certain that the sub-costa reached 



1 ncucpos = long ; -rrepoi' = a wing'. 



