1 78 
Psyche 
[June 
distance beyond the origin of Rs. The ammonium chloride prepara- 
tion brings this vein out clearly enough so that it is visible in photo- 
graphs. On the other hand, the supposed branch of the media, which 
Tillyard showed as one arm of the cubital-median “Y-vein” and 
which was an important factor in his conclusions on the affinities of 
the fossil, cannot be seen — at least not by any techniques used by 
me. The cubital vein itself (labelled Cui in Tillyard’s drawing) is, 
as mentioned by Tillyard, a distinct one, which stands out more 
strongly than any of the others excepting Ri. It is, however, clearly 
concave in the fossil. This is important, since the supposedly homol- 
ogous vein (CuA) in the mecopterous wings is strongly convex. I 
am convinced, therefore, that the venation of Metropator only super- 
ficially resembles that of the Mecoptera and that it does not have 
the essential features of the mecopterous venation. 
I believe the type-specimen of M. pusillus can much more readily 
be interpreted as a hind wing of a miomopteron. In these wings the 
subcosta is very short (see figure 2 ), Rs arises close to the base of 
the wing, and CuA and CuP are completely coalesced, forming a 
strong concave vein. These are the outstanding features of pusillus. 
Unfortunately, since the base of the wing is missing in the type of 
pusillus, the precise relationship between Cu and M cannot be deter- 
mined ; however, there is no reason to assume that M does not join 
Cu near the basal part of the wing. The venation of pusillus shows 
more extensive branching than in the miomopteron illustrated in figure 
2 \P alaeomantis minuta (Sellards)] but in other genera of Mio- 
moptera (e.g., Stefanomioptera Guthorl and Permonika Kukalova) 
the radial sector has more branches than in Palaeomantis. It seems 
to me, therefore, that the available evidence, such as it is, indicates 
that Metropator is more likely a miomopteron than a mecopteron. 
The occurrence of several genera of Miomoptera in the Carboniferous 
deposits of Europe supports this probability. The Mecoptera, on the 
other hand, are otherwise unknown from beds earlier than the 
Permian and since these are endopterygote (holometabolous) insects, 
evidence for their presence in the lowest strata of the Upper Carbonif- 
erous should be really convincing before such a conclusion is reached. 
At present I believe the evidence points to a very different conclusion. 
Order Palaeodictyoptera goldenberg 
Family Eubleptidae Handlirsch 
Handlirsch, 1906, Proc. U.S.N.M., 29: 679 (Order Palaeodictyoptera). 
Laurentiaux, 1953, In Piveteau, Traite de Paleontologie. 3: 423 (Order 
Eubleptidodea) . 
