1970] 
MacLeod — Baltic Amber Neuroptera 
165 
Myrmeleontidae and Ascalaphidae in their possession of a single 
mandibular tooth, as opposed to three or four in these other two 
families. All ascalaphid larvae with which I am familiar do have 
three mandibular teeth, but the number varies from one to four in 
the Myrmeleontidae (MacLeod, 1964). In addition, this generali- 
zation is now further weakened by the very large setal bases along 
the inner surface of the mandible in the larva of IPronymphes sp. 
which approximate true teeth very closely. In my opinion the size 
of these bases in this fossil larva, combined with Baba’s (1953) 
experimental demonstration that such enlarged setal bases are the 
probable precursors of the true mandibular teeth, robs this character 
of whatever residual value it might have had in identifying nymphid 
larvae. Very likely the number of teeth in the larvae of this family 
has varied during its evolutionary history. 
The amber larva is quite similar to the larva of the living NympHes 
myrmeleonoides in such important regards as its unspecialized body 
shape, in the somewhat rugose texture of the cuticle of the head, 
in the presence of distinct dorsal and ventral rows of lateral scoli on 
the abdomen, and in the vestiture of setae with globular tips. 
Differences, probably of generic importance, occur in the details of 
the lateral abdominal scoli, which are longer and, in the dorsal 
series, distinctly pedunculate in N. myrmeleonoides. In addition, 
N. myrmeleonoides shows no traces of tooth-like, enlarged setal 
bases along the medial mandibular surface. 
Family PSYCHOPSIDAE Handlirsch, 1906 
Of the living families of Neuroptera, the family Psychopsidae is 
among the earliest to appear in the fossil record, since species, appar- 
ently little different from some recent forms, are known from Meso- 
zoic horizons as old as the Upper Triassic of Australia ( Tilly ard, 
1922; Riek, 1956) and the Jurassic of Russia (Martynova, 1949). 
Apparently related species, presently classified as the families Kalli- 
grammatidae, Osmylopsychopsidae, and Prohemerobiidae, are also 
known from Triassic and Jurassic strata and there appears to have 
been a rather extensive radiation of this group in the early Mesozoic 
from which only the approximately two dozen species of living psy- 
chopsids remain as descendants. Other than Kruger’s (1923) descrip- 
tion of a species from the Baltic amber, Tertiary records of this family 
have seemed to be lacking. Carpenter (1943b), however, concluded 
that Cockerell’s species Polystoechotes piper atns (Cockerell, 1908) 
from the Oligocene (Florissant) of Colorado is probably a psvchopsid 
