1963] 
Carpenter — Megasecopteron 
47 
four terminal branches, one of which arises towards the base of MP, 
almost directly below the first cross vein joining MA with Rs. Fork 
of CuA rather shallow; iA with several marginal branches. Other 
venational details, including the cross veins, are shown in text figure 
iA. 
Type: specimen no. 97.587, Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles 
de Belgique; collected along route from La Magdalena to Barrios de 
Luna, north of the village of Magdalena, Spain, by Dr. F. Stockmans. 
The shales in which the insect was collected are of Stephanian age, 
probably belonging to the upper part of Stephanian B (Wagner, 1958, 
1959). The type specimen is well-preserved (plate 1), except for the 
basal part of the wing, which is missing; the wing also shows clear 
signs of having been torn or broken at various places but most of these 
broken areas are very small and do not interfere with the interpretation 
of the venational pattern. One of the broken areas is along the anterior 
margin, not far from the level of the origin of Rs; here the wing 
margin is broken and the broken ends of the costal margin do not quite 
meet. That this is an actual break and not a normal part of the wing 
is clearly shown by the break which continues further towards the 
center of the wing as far as and slightly beyond Rs. The convexities 
and concavities of the wing are clearly shown in the fossil, although 
the wing was probably a very delicate one. 
This unusually interesting insect shows, in the wing, some features 
of both Palaeodictyoptera and Megasecoptera. The cross veins and 
the main veins, apart from Sc and Rl, could very easily be those of a 
palaeodictyopterous insect. However, the anterior part of the wing, 
with Sc and Ri crowded towards the anterior margin, clearly shows 
megasecopterous affinites. So far as the preserved part of the wing 
is concerned, the main veins are suggestive of the venation of Aspido- 
thorax, from Commentry, France (Stephanian). The relationship 
between MA and Rs is about the same; unfortunately the specimen 
of hispanica does not show the basal origin of CuA, although as it 
appears in the fossil it is very close to the stem of R and could very 
likely have continued basally parallel and close to R as it does in 
Aspidothorax. 
The costal area of hispanica is similar to that previously noted in 
other Megasecoptera. In my account of Actinohymen from the Per- 
mian of Texas (Carpenter, 1962), I included a photograph of part 
of the costal margin of the wing, showing prominent setae or setal 
bases along the margin. The costal margin of hispanica has similar 
structures (fig. A, plate 5), especially in the thickened, distal part of 
the costa. As in Actinohymen, the setae are also present on some of 
