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



type, family rank, the Spiloblattinidse. The family as thus de- 

 limited predominates at the Steubenville and Richmond local- 

 ities, and is known as high as the Cassville plant shales at the 

 base of the Dunkard series of West Virginia. It is abundant in 

 the Leroy shales of the Kansas Coal Measures, but has not 

 been recognized in the Wellington shales at the top of the Kan- 

 sas section. In Europe this group is reported from both 

 Upper Carboniferous and Lower Permian. The type genus, 

 /Spiloblattina, was described from Fairplay, Colorado. 



The Fairplay locality was placed by Scudder in the Trias. 

 Lesquereux maintained, however, that from the plant evidence 

 the formation could not be later than Permian. With regard 

 to the plant material, Mr. David White states :* " The plant 

 and insect beds at Fairplay, referred by Doctor Scudder to the 

 Trias, and by Lesquereux to the Permian, can, on the evidence 

 of the plants, not be regarded as later than Permian, if indeed 

 they are above the highest Coal Measures." The insect remains 

 as now interpreted are not in conflict with the plant evidence, 

 and certainly do not require the reference of the formation to 

 the Triassic. 



Of the two remaining genera occurring at the Ohio locality 

 Etoblattina is a Coal Measure-Permian genus. Poroblattina 

 is found at Fairplay, Colorado, and in the upper Carboniferous 

 and Lower Permian of Europe. The insect remains thus far 

 obtained do not therefore permit a close correlation of the 

 Birmingham shales with the Kansas section. It seems prob- 

 able, however, that that formation is of somewhat later age 

 than the Leroy shales of the Kansas Coal Measures. 



A number of insects have been obtained, principally by 

 Mr. P. D. LaCoe from the Cassville plant shales at Cassville, 

 West Virginia. This horizon lies at the base of the Dunkard 

 series variously regarded as Permian or as Permo-Carbon- 

 iferous, and occurs, according to I. C. White, some six hun- 

 dred feet in the stratigraphic column above the Birmingham 

 shales. In the collections from the Cassville locality, Scudder 

 recognized fifty-six species referable to five genera all of which 

 are cockroaches. I have been unable to recognize in the Wel- 

 lington shales the presence of any one of the fifty-six species 

 occurring at the Cassville locality, and only one genus Etoblat- 

 tina is common to the two horizons. The predominance of 

 the cockroach fauna together with the absence of such advanced 

 types as true ephemerids, leads to the view that the Cassville 

 locality, although possibly Permian, is much older than the 

 Wellington shales of the Kansas section. 



Among the few insects obtained from the Permian for- 

 mation of Russia, Handlirsch recognizes, as previously stated, 

 *TJ. S. Nat. Mus., vol. xxix, pp. 687, 1906. 



