1964] 
Carpenter — Carboniferous insects 
123 
in both wings. The venational pattern is basically as in the fore 
wing, with only slight differences in the positions of the branches, 
mainly those of the radial sector. The wing markings and cross 
veins are essentially as in the fore wing. 
Holotype: collected by Mr. Walter Dabasinskas in June, i960, 
in an ironstone nodule, found at the Greer Earthmoving and 
Mechanics School, Will County, Illinois, 4 miles north of Braid- 
wood. The type is contained in Mr. Dabasinskas’ collection and 
the species is named for him. This fossil is the most spectacularly 
preserved fossil insect which I have ever seen in a nodule from the 
Mazon Creek region and it is indeed one of the striking Carboni- 
ferous insects known to me. As can be observed in the photograph 
(plate 15) the fore wing is posterior in position to the hind wing 
and the apex of the fore wing rests near the base of the hind wing. 
That these two wings were derived from one side of the same 
specimen of an insect seems almost certain. The subcosta is concave 
in one wing and convex in the other; presumably, the wings broke 
away from the body as the insect rested in water and one of the 
wings turned over as well as rotating through 180° before coming 
to rest in the mud. The counterpart of the half of the specimen 
shown in plate 15 has the apex of the fore wing and basal region 
of the hind wing completely preserved. 
A comparison of the wings of dabasinskasi with those of H. 
elegans and the other Commentry species shows enough differences 
to require a distinct species for the new fossil but not enough in 
my opinion to justify generic separation. The hind margin of the 
fore wing of dabasinskasi is somewhat more sharply curved basally 
than in the Commentry species. The wing markings of dabasinskasi 
are distinctly different from those of elegans , which has a dark, 
longitudinal stripe along Ri distally; but they are similar to those 
of another Commentry species, H. ornata Brongniart. 
In addition to the features mentioned above as specific in nature, 
several other structures preserved in this new fossil deserve mention, 
since they may turn out to be common to all Spilapteridae and 
perhaps to other families of the Palaeodictyoptera. One of these is 
the series of fine ridges at the base of the costal area of both fore 
and hind wings (see plate 16). These do not appear to be veins in 
Explanation of Plate 18 
Homaloneura bonnieri Brongniart, U. Carboniferous, Commentry, France. 
Photograph of type in Laboratoire de Paleontologie, Paris. (Original). 
X 2. Note the prothoracic lobes and the similarity of the hind wing to that 
of H. dabasinskasi. 
