1 12 
Psyche 
[June 
The Affinities of Dictyoptilus 
As mentioned above, Brongniart, who did not accept Goldenberg’s 
order Palaeodictyoptera, placed Dictyoptilus with several other gen- 
era, without formal family assignment, in his “Neuropteres 
Primaires”. Handlirsch (1906) included the genus in the family 
Dictyoneuridae of the order Palaeodictyoptera. Of course, both 
Brongniart and Handlirsch knew the genus only by the small frag- 
ments representing the type-species, renaulti. In 1917 Lameere, who 
used a unique system of classification that virtually excluded extinct 
orders, 3 erected the family Dictyoptilidae for the genus and five 
other genera ( Archaemegaptilus, P eromaptera, Protagrion, Gilsonia, 
and Meganeura) , indicating that he was including the “Protodonates” 
in the Dictyoptilidae. That familv along with two others (Dictyo- 
neuridae, Fouqueidae) he included in a major division of the winged 
insects, the Odonatopteres. From this classification, it is apparent 
that Lameere regarded Dictyoptilus as more closely related to the 
obvious odonate types, such as Meganeura , than to the palaeodicty- 
opterous types, such as Dictyoneura and Stenodictya. In his discussion 
of the group which he terms the Protodonates ( 1917, p. 186) Lameere 
gives as part of the evidence for this position of Dictyoptilus the 
presence of a precostal space at the base of the fore wing and he also 
points to similarities in venation between Dictyoptilus and such forms 
as Protagrion , which is, however, now placed in the Palaeodictyop- 
tera (Carpenter, 1943). As noted above, I am not convinced that 
there is a true precostal space present in any of the specimens of 
Dictyoptilus. 
Handlirsch in 1919, not accepting Lameere’s synonomy of the genus 
Cockerelliella with Dictyoptilus , erected the family Cockerelliellidae, 
which he placed in the Palaeodictyoptera. He assigned Dictyoptilus 
to the family Dictyoneuridae, as previously. In his posthumously 
published paper of 1937, Handlirsch reviewed Lameere’s classifica- 
tion, stating his conviction that the Dictyoptilidae of Lameere were 
a mixture of odonate and of true palaedictyopterous types. In this 
work he recognized the family Dictyoptilidae in the sense of his 
previous family Cockerelliellidae, placing it in the Palaeodictyoptera. 
In 1935 Lameere still put Dictyoptilus in the Odonopteres but within 
the Stenodictoides, thus separating it from the Odonata and Proto- 
donata ( Odonatoides) . 
From the above summary it is apparent that Handlirsch and finally 
Lameere were convinced that Dictyoptilus was most closely related 
3 The order Pseudohemiptera ( = Protohemiptera) was the only extinct 
order recognized by Lameere. 
