84 
Psyche 
[June 
mentioned. The present distribution of the Masaridinse is 
almost exactly matched by that of the dipterous family Ne- 
mestrinidse, which is known with certainty from the Mio- 
cene and may even have existed during the Jurassic 1 . The 
living Onychophora (Peripatus and allies) exhibit a dis- 
tribution of a somewhat different type, yet distinctly com- 
posed of disconnected areas (See the map given by C. T. 
Brues, 1923, American Naturalist, LVII, p. 211) ; their ex- 
treme antiquity has been demonstrated by the discovery of 
one species in the middle Cambrian rocks of North America, 
although the group is no longer found living in that part of 
the world. The marine genus Pleurotomaria is one of the 
oldest groups of Gasteropoda: over 400 species are known 
from Palaeozoic rocks, from the Cambrian on, and it was 
also abundant during the Jurassic; it was much rarer dur- 
ing the Tertiary; in the modern seas it is represented by 
only five or six living species, two in the Antilles, two or 
three in Japan, and one in the Moluccas. 
A closer examination of the distribution of the Masa- 
ridinse brings out some other items of interest. In the Pa- 
lsearctic Region, these wasps are almost restricted to the 
Mediterranean Subregion which possesses 27 species of six 
genera: Ceramius, Paraceramius (endemic), Jugurtia, 
Quartinia, Celonites, and Masaris (endemic). Only one spe- 
cies, Celonites abbreviatus (Villers), extends into Central 
Europe, being found in Austria, Switzerland, and southern 
Germany (northernmost locality: Weissenfels near Leip- 
zig, in about 51° N. lat.). Quartinia and Celonites are each 
represented by one species in the extreme northwestern 
corner of India, a region which may be regarded as an ex- 
tension of the Mediterranean Subregion. Otherwise the sub- 
family is absent from the Oriental Region. One species of 
Quartinia has been described from Mongolia and one species 
of Paraceramius from Korea, both these areas belonging 
to the Palsearctic Region. 
In the Ethiopian Region, South Africa is unusually rich, 
iProhirmoneura jurassica Handlirsch, described from the lithographic 
chalk (Malm) of Bavaria, is undoubtedly a nemestrinid. Yet, as it was 
based upon a single specimen, I feel somewhat doubtful of the correct- 
ness of the geological horizon to which it was referred. 
