195 
1964 ] Carpenter and Kukalova — Protelytroptera 
for the presence of a fine hair covering and several rows of coarse 
setae. 
General Characteristics of the Order Protelytroptera 
The present indications are that the order Protelytroptera was a 
large and varied group of insects during the Permian times. The 
general characteristics which have been applied to this order (Car- 
penter, 1933) now require considerable modification as a result of 
even the relatively few additional species which have been studied 
in the past few years. The following account summarizes these 
characteristics as we now know them. 
In what are almost certainly the more primitive forms, the fore 
wings are tegminous or almost flat, the costal expansion only slightly 
enlarged and the sutural margin either completely missing (Elytro- 
neuridae) or at most not fully developed (Archelytridae) . The 
thinner types of fore wings often have cross veins (Archelytridae, 
Apachelytridae), eventually with the addition of diverse kinds of 
sculpture (Protocoleidae). In others, presumably more highly 
specialized species (e.g., Protelytridae and Blattelytridae) , the fore 
wings are convex and strongly sclerotized, forming true elytra. The 
sculpturing in these is in the form of either an indistinct rugosity 
or conspicuous reticulation, often arranged in complicated patterns. 
The veins of such elytra have few branches and are always indistinct, 
even to the degree of being obsolescent (Carpenter, 1933). The 
hind wing is known in three families, the Protelytridae, Blattelytri- 
dae and Apachelytridae. In all of these a well developed anal fan 
is present, this being made up of radiating anal veins. The remigium 
is distinctly narrow. Differences in the venational patterns of the 
remigium of these three families are very striking. In the Pro- 
telytridae, Rs, M and apparently Cu and iA coalesce to form a 
strongly sclerotized plate, which Tillyard has designated the fulcrum 
and which he considered comparable to a similar structure in the 
Dermaptera. This was, in Tillyard’s opinion, developed in connec- 
tion with the evolution of the folding of the hind wings. The 
reduction of the main veins in the hind wing is undoubtedly a 
specialization relating to wing folding. In the other two families, 
the hind wing is much less modified; neither one has a fulcrum, 
although in the Apachelytridae the distal parts of the veins are in 
close association in the general region where the fulcrum in the 
Protelytridae occurs. In the Blattelytridae, on the other hand, the 
hind wing does not show even this trend. It is surprising that in 
the Blattelytridae, which have the more highly specialized elytra, the 
