AN ODONATE FOSSIL WING 
FROM THE OLIGOCENE OF OREGON 1 
By Lt. Col. F. C. Fraser, I.M.S., Retd. 
Bournemouth, England 
I am indebted to Professor Frank M. Carpenter for gen- 
erously delegating to me the task of describing an inter- 
esting odonate wing from the Eugene Formation of the 
the middle Oligocene of Oregon. The specimen was col- 
lected by Mr. Chester W. Washburne in 1900 and is one 
of the insects mentioned by Washburne in his account of 
the geology of the Eugene Formation. 2 
The specimen, which consists of a complete fore wing, 
is contained in a tuffaceous mudstone, a medium which 
makes for wonderful preservation of even the most minute 
details of venation; only the middle third of the space 
between the nodus and the pterostigma is damaged but 
this is just the part which is of the least importance and 
which can be restored with a minimum of error. The actual 
outlines of the wing are so intact that both the length and 
breadth can be given with the greatest accuracy. The wing 
belongs to a species of the family Epallagidae and with 
a few adjustments, might well be placed in the genus 
Euphaea Selys. The fossil, which consists of obverse and 
reverse impressions, is deeply stained a dull warm brown, 
agreeing in this respect with fragments of leaves and 
plants among which the wing had come to rest; thus I am 
of the opinion that this apparent pigmentation is only 
the result of staining or some later chemical reaction. This 
opinion is supported by a broad apical dark band which is 
present on the reverse impression but absent on the ob- 
verse; on the latter a convex crack runs across the apex 
of the wing and a tracing made of this served to show that 
'Published with a grant from the Museum of Comparative Zoology 
at Harvard College. 
2 Reconnaissance of the Geology and Oil Prospects of Northwestern 
Oregon, 1914, Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., 590:100. 
42 
