154 CHARLES S. PROSSER 



It has usually been observed in collecting from Paleozoic localities, that 

 cockroaches exceed in number of individuals all other insects combined. In the 

 Wellington shales the cockroaches are much in the minority. A collection of 

 something over two thousand insect specimens was found to contain only about 

 seventy cockroaches. From these, two genera and ten species were identified. 

 Of the two genera, one is the well-known Coal Measure and Permian genus 

 Etohlattina. The second genus is new. The ten species obtained are new. The 

 rarity of cockroaches in the Wellington is in marked contrast to their relative 

 abundance in most Coal Measure and early Permian localities.^ .... 



Among the few insects obtained from the Permian formation of Russia, 

 Handlirsch recognizes, as previously stated, the occurrence of true Ephemerids. 

 The Russian deposits have also yielded forms regarded as representing Paleo- 

 hemiptera and Mantoidae. These last two groups have not been recognized in the 

 Kansas Permian. The presence of the Ephemerids, however, forms a strong tie 

 in common between the insects of the Russian and the Kansas Permian.^ 



Fossil plants which are associated with the insects at this locality 

 have also been described by Dr. Sellards, and he writes in no uncer- 

 tain way concerning their geological age. He says: 



In the writer's opinion, the plant fossils indicate unequivocally the Permian 

 age of the formation from which they come. The evidence as to the age of the 

 Wellington shales, derived from the flora, is thus summarized in the report 

 referred to {Kansas University Geological Survey]: "More than two-thirds of the 

 Wellington species are either identical with or most closely related to species or 

 genera characteristic of the European Permian. The points which seem to have 

 the most importance as bearing on correlation of the Wellington are the following: 

 (i) The complete absence from the Wellington of species in any way confined to 

 or distinctive of the Coal Measures. (2) The comparatively small number of 

 species originating as early as Upper Coal Measure time. (3) The presence of a 

 few species common to and characteristic of the Permian of Europe. (4) The 

 close relation of the new forms to species characteristic of the European Permian. 

 (5) The distinctly Permian facies of the flora as a whole and its marked advance 

 over the flora of the Upper Coal Measures. 



"The advance in the flora consists in the number of species and in the abun- 

 dance of individuals of callipterid and tseniopterid ferns, and of the new fern genus, 

 Glenopteris, which appears to be related, on the one hand, to callipterid ferns of 

 Permian types, and, on the other, to the Triassic genera Cycadopteris and Lomatop- 

 teris. 



"The evidence derived from the fossil plants as a whole seems to assure the 

 reference of the Wellington to the true Permian in the European sense." 



1 Am. Jour. Sci., 4th ser.. Vol. XXVII, Feb., 1909, p. 171. 



2 Ibid., pp. 172, 173. 



