MEXICAN SNAKE-FLIES 
(NEUROPTERA: RAPHIDIODEA) 1 
By F. M. Carpenter 
Harvard University 
The geographical distribution of the genera of snake-flies 
has been discussed in two previous papers (Carpenter, 
1936, 1956). Up to the present time, only two ( Agulla , 
Inocellia) of the four genera in the order have been found 
in the New World, although the other two (Raphidia, 
Fibla) are represented in Miocene deposits of Colorado. 
The present paper is concerned with several specimens 
of snake-flies obtained from Dr. William W. Gibson of 
the Rockefeller Foundation, Jean Mathieu of the Instituto 
Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Mexico, 
and Dr. Henry E. Howden of the Canada Department of 
Agriculture, Science Service. The two species represented 
are of unusual interest: one belongs to Raphidia and is, 
therefore, the first living species of this genus to be found 
in the New World; the other is an Inocellia possessing 
strongly pilose antennae — a feature not otherwise known 
in the suborder Raphidiodea. 
Family Raphidiidae 
This family has previously been represented in the 
New World only by the genus Agidla. In addition to sixteen 
species occuring in parts of western United States and 
Canada, one species ( herbsti Esben-Petersen) has been 
described from central Chile and two species have been 
described from Mexico. One of the latter ( australis Banks) 
is known from San Lazaro in Baja California; 2 the other 
in southern Mexico. Specimens of the new species of 
( caudata Navas) was collected in the state of Guerrero 
1 Published with the aid of a grant from the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology at Harvard College. 
2 The locality given in the published account (Banks, 1895) is “San 
Lazaro, Baja California/’ but the labels on the two cotypes (M.C.Z.) of 
australis read “San Lorenzo, Baja California.” 
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