F. M. Carpenter.
A Jurassic Neuropteran from the Lithographic Limestone of Bavaria.
Psyche 36(3):190-194, 1929.

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Psyche
[September
A JURASSIC NEUROPTERAN FROM THE LITHO-
GRAPHIC LIMESTONE OF BAVAR1A.l
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 Neuropteren am 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, Nmo. 322.



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19291 Jurassic Neuropt eran of Bavaria 191 only after a study of the type specimens. It is quite obvious, however, that insects related to the recent Hemerobiidae and Myrmeliontidae are present, as well as others more remote from these families. One of the genera, ~Nymphites Hasse (1890,) seems to be closely related to the recent Australian genus Nymphes, as observed by Hasse. The Jurassic genus differs from Nymphes by the possession of a branched media in the fore wing and a much smaller number of cross-veins. A second genus, Sialium Westwood (1854), was based upon a species apparently somewhat similar to Nymphites, but the type specimen is so poorly preserved that its exact affinities cannot be determined.1 Hagen's "Nymphes f ossilis", although undoubtedly belong- ing to a new genus, is so closely related to Nymphites that I can see no reasonwto exclude it from the family Nymphitidae. Family Nymphitidae.
Mesonymphes, new genus.
Allied to Nymphes and Nymphites. Wings slender, pointed, with a number of cross-veins in the costal space and in the subcostal area, between Rl and Sc. Sc close to Rl; Rl bent downward distally; Rs with 13 branches in the fore wing, and 11 in the hind wing; media joined to the stem of the radius a little basad of the origin of Rs; M branched in the fore wing, the branches diverging close to the base of the wing; M unbranched in the hind wing; Cul without a basal branch; Cu2 a well-developed vein, sending a large series of short terminal branches to the hind margin of the wing; 3 anal veins in the fore wing. The hind wing has a narrower costal space, a smaller anal area, and is somewhat shorter than the fore wing. Cross- veins much less numerous than in ~Vymphes. Genotype: Mesonymphes hageni, n. sp.
(Figure 1.)
Length of fore wing (estimated), 4.0 cm. ; hind wing, 3.6 em. Width of fore wing, 1.0 em.; hind wing, 9 cm. Anterior 1 Scudder even placed it within the Blattidae (Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. 3:472, 1886).




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192 Psyche [September
margin of wing straight or nearly so, posterior margin regularly convex, the wing being broadest at about the middle; the costal space is much broader distally, so that the termination of Rl is very remote from the apex of the wing; area between Sc and Rl with 4 or 5 cross-veins; Rl distinctly curved backward at its distal end; Rs and M diverging from R close together; space between Rl and Rs with less than 10 cross-veins; between the basal branches Fig. 1
Venation of fore end hind wings of Mesonymphes hageni, n. sp. Sc, subcosta; RI, radius proper; Rs, radial sector; M, media; Cul and Cu2, branches of cubitus; lA, first anal.
of Rs there are numerous cross-veins, but there are ap- parently none at all between the distal branches; Cul long and straight, with seven irregular distal branches; Cu2 is much more strongly developed, with eleven branches; 1A forked in both wings; cross-veins present between Cul and Cu2. The specimen has the left fore and hind wings well apart; the right wings are folded together, so that the veins are indistinguishable. The body is slender, being 30 mm. long, and 3 mm. wide; no details of the head are preserved. Holotype : no. 1999 Museum of Comparative Zoology. On the back of this specimen, in German script and in Hagen's



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19291 Jurassic Neuropteran of Bavaria 193 characteristic writing : "Nymphes verwandt, herrlich !", and also printed on a label, which has been pasted to the rock: "Nymphes fossilis Hagen. Paleont. X. P. 108 No. 36. Type. Solenhofen, Dr. Krantz."
The generic affinities of Mesonymphes are quite obvious. From Nymphites it differs by the possession of an un- branched media in the fore wing, by a more pronounced development of the costal space towards the apex of the wing, by the more specialized termination of Rl, and especially in the degree of development of Cu2. In the struc- ture of the first three of these features the venation approaches that of Nyrnphes itself, but the cubitus is de- cidedly different. Cul of Mesonymphes sends off only seven branches while Cu2 gives rise to eleven; in Nymphes there are 8 branches leading from Cul, and only 5 from Cu2. There is a close resemblance of Mesonymphes to the Myio- dactylid genus Osmylops, which inhabits parts of Australia.l The costal area is much broader in the recent genus and the terminations of Sc and Rl are somewhat different, but the structure of the cubitus in the fore wing is quite the same in both genera. Martynov has described a related Neuropteran from the Jurassic beds of Turkestan (1927), but this fossil has closer affinities with the Hemerobiidae than with the Nymphitidae.
The modern aspect of Mesonymphes is of unusual inter- est. If a Neuropteran with the venational characteristics of Mesonymphes were found in the tropics at the present time, it would probably not arouse much comment. The only feature of this insect which is more primitive than that of Nymphes is the small number of cross-veins. For
although Martynov in his description of the Turkestan form claims that the original ancestral condition of the Myrmeleontid types was characterized by a larger number of cross-veins, which have decreased from the Jurassic to the present, this conception is contrary to all the evidence that has been accumulated on the evolution of the order.
11 do not accept Tillyard's interpretation of the venation of this genus, as explained in his "Insects of Australia and New Zealand" (p. 321, and fig. U16). The vein which he has labeled M3+4, being strongly convex, is Cul, and his Cul, being strongly concave, is Cu2.



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194 Psyche [September
Tillyard, in his Panorpoid Complex, concluded from a study of recent and fossil Neuroptera that the ancestral and primitive forms of the order possessed only a few, widely- spaced cross-veins, and nothing has subsequently been found to refute his view. This small number of cross-veins is the only characteristic of Nesonymphes which is not found in Nymphes or closely related genera now existing in the tropics.
References
Hagen, H. A. 1862. Ueber die Neuropteren aus dem litho- graphischen Schiefer in Bayern. Palaeontolgraphica, 10 :108.
Hasse, E. 1890. Bermerken zur Palaeontologie der Insekten. Nues Jahrb. Min. 1890 (2) : 23. PI. 24, fig. 11. Westwood, 0. 1854. Contribution to Fossil Entomology. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. Lond. 10:390. PI. 18, fig. 22.



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