THE STRUCTURE OF THE PROTELYTROPTERA 
WITH DESCRIPTION OF A NEW GENUS FROM 
PERMIAN STRATA OF MORAVIA* 
By 
F. M. Carpenter, Harvard University 
AND 
Jarmila Kukalova, Charles University, Prague 1 
The extinct order Protelytroptera was established by Tillyard in 
1931 for a series of elytrophorous insects from Lower Permian 
deposits near Elmo, Kansas. Additional genera from the same strata 
were subsequently described by Carpenter (1933, 1939). Apart from 
one little-known species ( Uralelytron martynovi Rohdendorf) from 
the Russian Permian and the controversial Protocoleidae from the 
Upper Permian of Australia, nothing more has been known of the 
order. 2 This meager record has given the general impression that 
the order was a small one, not very diversified, and unusually re- 
stricted geographically. 
A very different view of the order now results from the discovery 
of Permian representatives in collections from Moravia (Czecho- 
slovakia) and Australia which are being studied by one of the 
present authors (Kukalova) ; they show a diversity of wing and 
body structure that has not previously been expected in this order. 
A full treatment of the Moravian and Australian material will be 
published elsewhere. The present paper consists of an account of 
what is now known about the wing and body structure of the 
members of this extinct order. A description of one of the Moravian 
fossils is included, since it gives information about the hind wing and 
body of a new family; also included are the results of a restudy of 
some specimens from the Elmo locality, in particular types which 
are in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University 
and the Peabody Museum at Yale University. 
Family Protelytridae Tillyard 
Protelytridae Tillyard, 1931, Amer. Journ. Sci. 21:235; Carpenter, 1933, 
Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts Sci. 68:465-473. 
*This research has been aided by grant no. NSF GP-2038 from the Na- 
tional Science Foundation. 
Turrent address: Biological Laboratories, Harvard University. 
2 The poorly known species, Arctocoleus ivensis Martynov and Bardocoleus 
insignis Zalessky, from Permian deposits in Russia, may also belong to the 
Protelytroptera. 
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