54 



FOSSIL INSECTS OF THE BRITISH COAL MEASURES. 



Spilaptera sutcliffei, Bolton. Plate III, fig. 3 ; Text-figure L4. 



1917. Spilaptera sutcliffei, Bolton, Quart. Joum. G-eoI. Sue, vol. lxxii, p. 53, pi. iv, fig. 1, and 



text-fig. 



Type. — Basal third of a wing; Manchester Museum (no. L. 8197). 



Horizon and Locality. — Middle Coal Measures (grey -blue shales 135 — ISO feet 

 above the Royley or Arley Mine) ; Sparth Bottoms, Rochdale, Lancashire. 



Specific Characters. — Subcosta parallel with the costal margin ; median vein 

 dividing near the base into two branches, of which the outer forks just beyond the 

 point of origin of the radial sector. Cubitus a large and much-divided vein. 

 Anal veins few in number. 



Description. — This specimen was formerly labelled " Stenodictya lobata" and is 

 one of three recorded by Sutcliffe, Baldwin, and others, in their papers on the 

 fossils found at Sparth Bottoms. The remaining two are described (p. 37) under 





,' • • y ' / *>' 



/ / / s / -/ ,'? 





_/_-^ mi 



Pig. 14. — Spilaptera sutcliffei, Bolton; restoration of left wing, natural size.— Middle Coal Measures 

 (shales above the Royley or Arley Mine) ; Sparth Bottoms, Rochdale, Lancashire. Manchester 

 Museum (no. L. fSlilT). 



Mecynoptera tuberculata, Bolton. The specimen consists of the basal third of a 

 wing lying on the median plane of a small irregular micaceous sandy nodule. The 

 finer structure of the wing has not been preserved, owing, no doubt, to the coarse 

 grain of the matrix. The chief veins of the wing are robust structures, and these 

 are fortunately well marked and clear. The wing-fragment is 35 mm. in length 

 along the outer margin, and '11 mm. in greatest width, but as the inner margin is 

 broken away and lost, the total width of the wing exceeded this, and may have 

 been over 30 mm. It belongs to a left wing, and when complete must have been 

 at least ( .K> mm. in total length. The perfect insect must therefore have had a 

 spread of wing of nearly 200 mm., or about 8 inches, 



The outer margin is feebly convex, the subcosta fairly parallel, sunk in a groove, 

 and gradually approaching the outer margin as it passes towards the wing-apex. 

 The rate of approach is so gradual that the junction must have been far out near 

 the wing-apex. The intercostal area is crossed by a series of straight nervures 

 which are oblique in their course outwards. 



