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Psyche 
[December 
primitive in Eurasia and the derivative genera in Tertiary and present 
North America. The only known fossil of the subfamily Hodoter- 
mitinae is JJlmeriella (Emerson, in press) found in Tertiary tem- 
perate deposits of Europe, Asia, and North America, while the living 
genera (3) of the Hodotermitinae are the desert and steppe har- 
vester termites of temperate and tropical Africa and Asia. These 
distributions in time and space would seem to indicate a very ancient 
origin with considerable extinction of intergrades between the relict 
types of fossils and present survivors (Emerson, 1955, in press). 
Cretatermes now provides direct evidence of the existence of a 
fairly advanced subfamily of the otherwise primitive family of Hodo- 
termitidae in mid-Cretaceous times, and indicates that the origin of 
this family of termites and the order Isoptera is much earlier than 
the Labrador deposits. The author suggests that the origin of the 
Hodotermitidae may be Triassic and that the origin of the Isoptera 
may be late Paleozoic. 
Genus Cretatermes, new genus 
type species : Cretatermes carpenteri , new species. 
With only a single forewing representing a monotypic subfamily, 
and with no data on the variation within the species or the common 
characteristics of several species within the genus, the description 
of the genus and the subfamily coincides for the present. 
From the knowledge of species and generic differences in the other 
subfamilies of Hodotermitidae, however, it is possible to indicate 
the characters that might be considered of subfamily rank and those 
that might be considered of generic rank. 
The forewings of various genera of Termopsinae show differences 
in the shape of the humeral suture (Emerson, 1933) with very few 
differences in the wing venation beyond the suture. 
Generic characters of the Hodotermitinae are found in the man- 
dibles and the tibial spines, while the wings show little distinction. 
The subfamilies of Porotermitinae and Stolotermitinae, each 
known from a single genus, show little variation of the humeral 
suture within each genus, and also show numerous generic char- 
acters of the wing venation. Smaller degrees of difference in the 
wing venation indicate species distinctions. 
The species within the genera can often be distinguished by the 
shape of the wing, the relation of length to breadth, small differences 
in the shape of the humeral suture, and the mean sizes of male and 
female forewings and other structures. On occasion, specific varia- 
tion in wing venation can be detected, although many wings must 
