190 
Psyche 
[September 
A JURASSIC NEUROPTERAN FROM THE LITHO- 
GRAPHIC LIMESTONE OF BAVARIA. 1 
By F. M. Carpenter 
In the Hagen collection of fossil insects at the Museum of 
Comparative Zoology there are a number of Neuropteroides 
from the lithographic limestone of Solenhofen, Bavaria. 
Most of these insects were adequately described by Hagen 
in his several papers on the neuropteroid fauna of this 
formation, but some of them were dismissed with only a 
few words or were not described at all, so that their exact 
affinities have been uncertain. Among these incompletely 
described fossils there is one which is especially striking, 
because of its excellent preservation and its affinities with 
certain recent genera. Since Mesozoic Neuroptera are very 
rare, it seems advisable to describe this fossil with the 
completeness it deserves. 
The insect is a true Neuropteran (Planipennia) and is 
the specimen to which Hagen applied the name Nymphes 
fossilis in his N eur opt even aus dem lithographischen 
Schiefer in Bayern (1862). Except for the mere statement 
that the fossil was an excellent one, no description or figure 
was given, so that Hagen’s name for the insect has no stand- 
ing. Handlirsch did not examine this specimen during the 
preparation of his comprehensive account of fossil insects, 
and was obliged to ignore it. The other Neuroptera of the 
lithographic limestone have been treated by several authors 
in general accounts of the Solenhofen insects. Eighteen rec- 
ognizable species have been described, although it is prob- 
able that some of these are synonymous. Handlirsch’s 
division of the species into families is largely artificial and 
unsatisfactory, but a dependable classification can be made 
1 Contribution from the Entomological Laboratory of the Bussey 
Institution, Harvard University, No. 322. 
