36 FOSSIL INSECTS OF THE BRITISH COAL MEASURES. 



The costal vein is stout and raised above the general level of the wing in the 

 outer third of its length, where it curves backwards into the wing-tip. The 

 subcostal is a weaker vein, parallel with and very close to the costa, dying out or 

 joining the outer margin at the apex. The radius is a powerful undivided vein, 

 parallel with the subcosta and reaching the middle of the wing-apex. The radial 

 sector is given off about the middle of the length of the wing and forks into two 

 equal branches, which again fork before reaching the margin ; the outermost branch 

 of the second forks again and divides just before the wing-apex is reached. The 



Fig. 4. — Cryjjtovenia moyseyi, Bolton ; restoration of left wing reconstructed from the wing-fragment 

 and counter-impression, enlarged two-and-a-half times. — Middle Coal Measures (U>lc>\\ the Top 

 Hard Coal) ; Shipley Manor Claypit, Ilkeston, Derbyshire. Moysey Collection, Mus. Pract. Geol. 

 (nos. 30,226 and 30,227.) 



inner half of the wing-apex is occupied by the five branches of the radial sector. 

 The median vein is a comparatively simple structure, forking low down below the 

 middle of the wing into two nearly equal branches. The outer branch remains 

 undivided, and gently curves to the inner margin. The inner branch divides 

 twice, first at a point near the middle of the wing, and again before the margin 

 is reached. The median vein therefore ends on the margin in four twigs, three 

 members of which arise from the inner of the two main branches. . 



The cubital vein is strongly arcuate, dividing near the base into two branches, 

 the outer forking twice and the inner once. The cubital vein therefore ends in five 

 twigs. 



Family Mecynopterid/E, Handlirsch. 

 1906. Handlirsch, Die Fossilen Insekten, p. 82. 



Handlirsch established this family to receive a large wing from the Middle 

 Upper Carboniferous of Belgium, and placed it between the families Hyperme- 

 gethidae and Lithomantidse. The characters of the family are based on those of 

 the type-species, Mecynoptera splendida, Handl. 



Genus MECYNOPTERA, Handlirsch. 



1904. Mecynoptera, Handlirsch, Mem. Mus. Roy. Hist. Nat. ~Be\g., vol. iii, p. 7. 

 1906. Mecynoptera, Handlirsch. Die Fossilen Insekten, p. 82. 



