186 
Psyche 
[September 
A NEW PROTODONATAN FROM THE GRAND 
CANYON. 1 
By F. M. Carpenter. 
Through the kindness of Dr. David White of the United 
States Geological Survey I have had the opportunity of studying 
three fossil insects, which he collected about a year ago in the 
Hermit Shale (Lower Permian) of the Grand Canyon. Two of 
these specimens are so incompletely preserved that their exact 
affinities cannot be determined; one appears to be the posterior 
half of the abdomen of an Odonate insect, and the other, a 
forewing of a blattid. The third fossil, however, is a nearly 
complete wing of a Protodonatan, described below as Typus 
whitei, n. sp., and is particularly interesting because of its close 
relationship with Typus gilmorei Carp., also from the Hermit 
Shale 2 . This latter species, which is based upon a specimen col- 
lected by C. W. Gilmore in 1926, is the only fossil insect pre- 
viously known from the Grand Canyon. 
The order Protodonata was originally established by Bron- 
gniart in 1884, and later extended by Handlirsch to include a 
series of Odonate insects, occurring in the Carboniferous and 
Permian formations of both hemispheres. Although the order 
has usually been considered to be directly ancestral to the Odo- 
nata, the recent researches of R. J. Tillyard have led him to 
conclude that these two orders are parallel groups, derived from 
a common stem, the Carboniferous Megasecoptera. The me- 
ganeurid genus, Typus Sell., includes only the genotype, T. 
permianus Sell., from the Lower Permian of Kansas, in addition 
to the Grand Canyon species. All three of these species were 
large in comparison with most living insects, having an expanse 
of about eight inches, but were small beside the 28 inch Me- 
ganeura monyi Brongn., from Commentry. The new species is 
a little smaller than the genotype. 
Contribution from the Entomological Laboratory of the Bussey Insti- 
tution of Harvard University, no. 299. 
Carpenter, F. M. Proc. U. S. N. M., 71, art. 23. 1927. 
8 3ellards, E. H. Amer. Journ. Sci., (4) 22: 249-258, 1906. 
