STUDIES ON CARBONIFEROUS INSECTS OF 
COMMENTRY, FRANCE: PART VI. THE 
GENUS DIC T'Y OPTIL US (PALAEODICTYOPTERA)* 
By F. M. Carpenter 
Harvard University 
The genus Dictyoptilus was established by Brongniart in 1893 for 
a single species, renciulti, based on two- small wing fragments. It was 
placed by Brongniart in the series of Palaeozoic insects which he 
termed the “Stenodictyopterides” and which he assigned to the “Prim- 
itive Neuroptera”. Two very closely related species were subsequently 
described by Meunier (1908, 1910) in a new genus, Cockerelliella. 
Although the Meunier specimens are very well preserved, the pub- 
lished accounts of them by Meunier, Handlirsch, and Lameere have 
not included their venational details, which turn out to be very im- 
portant for the determination of the phylogenetic position of Dic- 
tyoptilus. From a study of these fossils, made at the Laboratoire de 
Paleontolgie in Paris, in 1938 and 1961, I am convinced that Dic- 
tyoptilus is very close to the Permian genus Eugereon and should be 
included in the family Eugereonidae of the Order Palaeodictyoptera; 
that the venation of the hind wing of the Eugereonidae has been 
basically misinterpreted, the pattern being very different from that of 
the fore wing; and that the wings of Eugereon were actually long 
and slender, not short and broad, as formerly assumed. The reasons 
for these conclusions will be given after the descriptions of the Com- 
mentry fossils belonging to Dictyoptilus. 
Family Eugereonidae Handlirsch, 1906 
Eugereonidae Handlirsch, 1906, Foss. Ins., p. 388 
Dictyoptilidae Lameere, 1917, Mus. Nat. Hist. Natur., Bull. 23 :194 
Fore wing: slender, costal margin very nearly straight, not arched; 
Sc long; Rs arising near wing base, with 4 or 5 main branches; stem 
of M arising independently at base, then aligned with R for a short 
distance before diverging away; M forking near the level of origin 
of Rs; MA unbranched; MP branched; Cu curving towards M + R 
at very base, then parallel to it before dividing; CuA diverging 
towards M shortly after its origin, unbranched ; CuP forked ; several 
*This research has been aided by National Science Foundation Grant No. 
GB 2038. The previous paper in this series was published in Psyche, 70: 
240-256, 1963. 
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