52 FOSSIL INSECTS OF THE BRITISH COAL MEASURES. 



The radial sector presents several difficulties. In neither of the two published 

 figures is this vein depicted as we might expect. In all other respects the wing- 

 agrees remarkably closely with those of Breyeria and Megaptiloides, where the 

 radial sector sends off inwards a series of simple branches, and runs out fairly 

 parallel with the radius to the wing-apex. In place, however, of the radius 

 passing straight outwards, it is represented as dividing into two branches in the 

 distal fourth of the wing, the outer branch forking once and the inner forking 

 twice. The inner branch of the radial sector diverges widely from the outer, and 

 its three divisions go to the inner side of the wing-apex. A small branch is shown 

 by Woodward as joining the radial sector to the first branch of the median, while 

 the same branch is shown by Handlirsch as coming off from the radius immediately 

 in front of its division into two, and passing down towards the inner margin 

 between the inner branch of the radial sector and the first branch of the median, 

 but not uniting to the latter. The median vein arises near the radius and sweeps 

 out in a bold curve to the middle of the inner margin, giving off three outer 

 undivided branches. Dr. AVoodward, in his restoration of the base of the wing, 

 has inadvertently indicated the main stem of the cubitus ;is joining the median. 

 This is corrected in Handlirsch's drawing. The cubitus consists of a strongly 

 curved stem giving off two branches, but only the inner marginal portions of the 

 veins are present. The anal veins are three or four in number, and directed 

 backwards at right angles to the length of the wing. 



The interstitial neuration consists of feeble transverse nervures, which either 

 pass irregularly across between the main veins or occasionally fork. 



Affinities. — Dr. Woodward doubtfully refers the wing to Lithomantis carbo- 

 narius, Woodw. Handlirsch, in the earlier part of his work, ' Die Fossilen 

 Insekten ' (p. 126), classed it as a " Paheodictyopteron " only, and afterwards, 

 owing to its supposed relationship to L. carbonarius, and its evident likeness to 

 Lithosialis and Hadroneura, established the genus Stobbsia for it, placing the species 

 in the Lithomantidae. There are, however, certain features of the wing which 

 militate against his view. The close apposition of the costa, subcosta and radius 

 are in marked contrast to the condition in that family, where these veins are 

 widely spaced, and where there is also a very wide intercostal area. The radial 

 sector is also more complex. In those details in which the wing departs from the 

 Lithomantida?, it approaches the characters of the genera Breyeria ami Megapti- 

 loides. The resemblances to Megaptiloides brodiei, Brong., and Breyeria borinensis, 

 Borre, are very close, so far as can be determined by the distal fragment of the 

 former wing and the more than three-fourths of the latter wing. The main 

 difference between this wing and those of Breyeria borinensis and 11. lachlani is in 

 the character of the subcosta, which in the latter two species joins the radius. 

 Whether the published figures of the Staffordshire wing are correctly drawn in 

 this particular we do not know, and as we have already seen that these figures are 



