170 E. H. Sellards — Types of Permian Insects. 



somewhat abundant and including forms of an unusually large 

 size in the Commentry Coal Measures of France. Handlirsch 

 regards the Coal Measure types of Protodonates as constituting 

 an ordinal group of equal rank with modern Odonates. With 

 this classification I have been unable to agree, as the specimens, 

 from the Wellington shales at least, possess the essential 

 ordinal characters of true Odonata. 



The order Plecoptera, or ephemerids, is somewhat abundant 

 in the Wellington shales. In Part II of this paper I have 

 described ten genera and thirteen species constituting a new 

 family of this order. Insects which appear to be prototypes 

 of the ephemerids exist in some abundance in the Coal Meas- 

 ures. Handlirsch * has recognized ephemerids as occurring 

 sparingly in the Permian of Russia. With this exception, 

 true ephemerids have not previously been identified from 

 Paleozoic deposits. The relative abundance of this group of 

 insects in the Wellington shales affords an exceptionally strong 

 argument for the Permian age of that formation. That the 

 members of this group, as it occurs in the Wellington, are 

 provided with two pairs of fully developed wings and are 

 otherwise far more primitive than modern ephemerids, by no 

 means weakens the argument, since these are precisely the 

 characters to be expected in early members of the order. 



The order Megasecoptera is sparingly represented in the 

 Wellington shales, a single specimen having been obtained. 

 This order was described from Coal Measure specimens, from 

 which deposit alone it has been known heretofore. The 

 continuance of the order into the Permian, however, is not 

 unexpected. Aside from cockroaches, relatively few genera 

 of insects have been described from the Permian. This fact 

 is sufficient to account for the previous lack of knowledge 

 regarding the continuance of the Megasecoptera into the Per- 

 mian. 



The family Oryctoblattinidse was established upon Coal 

 Measure and Permian forms, seven Coal Measure and two 

 Permian genera having been referred to the group. From the 

 Wellington shales two genera of this family, both new, are 

 described in this paper. 



Protorthoptera is the predominant order of insects in the 

 Wellington shales. This order is recognized as common to both 

 Coal Measure and Permian deposits. Six families of the order 

 are described in this paper, all of which are new. The forms 

 making up these six families constitute twenty genera and 

 forty-three species. 



The cockroaches of the Kansas Permian have been described 

 in a paper now being published in the reports of the Kansas 

 * See Pt. II, p. 345. 



