254 J. A. G. REHN 



ORDER DERMAPTERA 



Fossil evidence indicates that the two oldest known members of 

 the Dermaptera were present in the Jurassic of Kazakstan, from 

 which they were reported in 1925 by Martynov. One of these, 

 Protodiplatys, was separated by him as a distinct fossil suborder, 

 the Archidermaptera, which has blattoid suggestions. The other, 

 Semenoviola has since been regarded as a member of the restricted 

 suborder Dermaptera. From the early Caenozoic we know true 

 forficulids from the middle Eocene of Italy, the Lower Oligocene of 

 Belgium, the Upper Miocene of Germany, and the Florissant 

 Miocene of Colorado, as well as from the Baltic Amber. However, 

 from the Permian of Kansas Tillyard described a representative of 

 what he regarded as a new order, the Protoelytroptera, which he 

 regarded as a link between the Paleozoic blattids and the Recent 

 Dermaptera. It is therefore within the realm of possibility that 

 North America may at one time have been as much a center of 

 development of the Dermaptera as the Old World. 



Of the ten genera Dermaptera in North America six (Labidura, 

 Anisolabis, Euborellia, Labia, Chelisoches, and Forficida) are clearly 

 introduced adventives, and several of these are almost entirely 

 riparian types, possibly dating back to "ballast" days, while the 

 genus Prolabia is represented in our fauna by two lines, one clearly 

 an Old World adventive (now known from southern Texas), the 

 other an intrusive Neotropical line of the genus found only in our 

 southeastern states west to Texas. 



The three remaining genera are clearly of Neotropical origin as 

 far as their presence in our limits is concerned. Two occur outside 

 our territory in Central and South America. One, Spongovostox, is 

 a pantropical assemblage with probably half the species Ethiopian 

 or Malagasian in distribution. The second of these genera, Vostox, 

 is clearly of Neotropical origin. Its single North American species 

 ranges broadly northward through the eastern United States to 

 Pennsylvania, yet does not extend any considerable distance west- 

 ward in Texas. 



The third and last genus Doru is also of Neotropical origin, and is 

 of very broad distribution in tropical America. In our territory 

 it is widely spread in the eastern and southwestern United States. 

 In Texas and in the extreme southwest only the widely distributed, 

 basically Neotropical, D. lineare, occurs, whereas in the eastern 



