36 Psyche 
tion (nos. 5109 and 5119), with similar dimensions and 
wing markings. 
Family Bittacidae 
Genus Bittacus Latr. 
Bittacus Latreille, 1805, Hist. Crust. Ins., 8:20. 
Electrohittacus Carpenter, 1931, Journ. N. Y. Ent. Soc., 
39:410. 
This is a very widely distributed genus at present, al- 
though it includes only about fifty species. The amber 
collection contains the three-^ species described below; a 
fourth species is also present but is not being described 
because of the fragmentary nature of the single speci- 
men which represents it. The occurrence of this number 
of species is striking, since only two species now exist in 
all of Europe; it substantiates evidence provided by other 
fossils that the family Bittacidae was more extensively 
developed during early Tertiary times than at present. 
An additional point of interest about the amber Bittacus 
is the small size of certain species. The wing expanse of 
most living members of. genus is at least 34 mm., although 
in a few species, such as B. apicalis, it may be 30 mm. One 
of the amber species described below (minimus) has a wing 
expanse of 24 mm., and is, I believe, the smallest species 
of the genus known. 
Bittacus fossilis, n. sp. 
(Figures 3A and 4B) 
Bittacus antiquus Hagen, 1856, in Berendt’s Bernstein 
Befindl. organ. Reste Vorw., 2(1) :92; pi. 8, fig. 22 
(nec Bittacus antiquus Pictet, 1854, Traite PaleontoL, 
:379; pi. 40, fig. 26). 
Fore wing: length, 14.5-16 mm.; width, 3. 3-3. 8 mm.; 
body light brown; wings uniformly light brown, except 
for pterostigma, which is slightly darker; no wing mark- 
ings; venation and wing shape as in figure 3A; a single 
pterostigmal cross-vein; cubital cross-vein below first fork 
^This figure does not include B. valid us Hagen, which, as I have 
previously pointed out (1931), can on’y douhtfully be assigned to the 
Mecoptera. 
