AN EOCENE BITTACUS (MECOPTERA) 1 
By F. M. Carpenter 
Harvard University 
In 1928 2 I described, as Palaeobittacus eocenicus, a 
species of the family Bittacidae from Eocene strata in 
Colorado. This has been the only representative of the 
Mecoptera in Eocene deposits and the earliest unquestion- 
able record of a living family of the order. A second 
Eocene bittacid has now turned up, this time among an 
extensive collection of insects which Dr. Carl Parsons 
and I made nearly twenty years ago in Utah. It appears 
to be a true Bittacus with characteristic wing venation 
and body features. 
Genus Bittacus Latr. 
Bittacus egestionis, n. sp. 
(Figures 1 and 2) 
Fore wing: 8 mm. long; maximum width, 2 mm.; anten- 
nae 2 mm. long; body 7 mm. long; wings without mark- 
Figure 1. Drawing of fore wing of Bittacus egestionis, n. sp. 
ings; venation and wing form as shown in figure 2; cubital 
cross-vein below the first fork of M; two pterostigmal 
cross-veins apparently present; hing wings somewhat more 
slender than fore wings. 
'Published with a grant from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at 
Harvard College. 
2 A Scorpion-fty from the Green River Eocene. Annals Carnegie Museum, 
28 : 240 - 249 . 1928 . 
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