part 1] AECHIMTLACEIS PEINGLEI. 29 



earlier j)eriod. He was firmly convinced that the most primitive 

 insects would yet be found in Devonian rocks, or in the Upper 

 Silurian. The oldest insect forms known are generalized types 

 that have no direct relation with living orders of insects. Their 

 interrelationships are not at all well understood, and the greater 

 number of them are grouped into a class, Palseodictyoptera, which 

 serves rather as a dumping-ground than as the expression of an 

 understood classification. Blattoid forms are numerous, and of 

 great variety, their specialization having proceeded far beyond a 

 primitive condition. 



In answer to Mr. Dixon, the Author said that the Wellington 

 Blattoid had the same degree of specialization as the two species 

 compared with it from Lievin. It was, indeed, very closely related 

 to them, much more so than to any British species yet known. A 

 similar degree of specialization and relationship had been established 

 between Soomylacris deanensis of the Forest of Dean Coalfield, 

 >S'. hurri of the Kent Coalfield, and S. lievinensis from the insect- 

 beds of Lievin. Similarly, Meganeura {Boltonites, Handlirsch) 

 radstockensis was closely related to M. monyi of the Coal Measures 

 of Commentry. 



