1960] 
Carpenter — Protodonata 
105 
Palaeotherates pennsylvanicus Handl. 
Text figure 4. 
Palaeotherates pennsylvanicus Handlirsch, 1906, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 29: 
690, fig. 17. 
Palaeotherates pensilvanicus [sic] Handlirsch, 1906, Fossilen Insekten: 311; 
pi. 32, fig. 5. 
The fossil on which this species was established consists of a wing 
fragment preserved in black shale; it was collected in 1887 in inter- 
conglomerates, at Coxton, one mile north of Pittston, Pennsylvania. 
The type specimen, which is in the U. S. National Museum (No. 
38787), was kindly loaned to me for study through the courtesy of 
Dr. G. A. Cooper. 
Handlirsch’s drawing of the fossil, although correctly representing 
the general venational features, omitted two significant details, — the 
subnodal vein and the costa. He recognized that the “second vein” 
must be the radius (Ri), but since he could detect no anterior vein, 
other than a marginal one, he concluded that the subcosta had fused 
with the costa in the area of the wing preserved. However, the clear 
preservation of the subnodus (S11), which Handlirsch did not figure, 
shows that the part of the wing represented was too near the middle 
of the wing for the termination of the subcosta to have taken place. 
Furthermore, careful study of the fossil shows that the anterior 
margin of the wing (costa) is actually present as distinct from the 
subcosta in the distal part of the fossil, although it is broken away 
along the rest of the wing fragment. It now becomes clear that the 
fossil represents a fragment of the wing just beyond the middle; it 
includes the point of separation of R2 and R3, but not the separation 
of R2 + 3 and R4+5. Handlirsch’s naming of the veins is incorrect; 
the convexities and concavities, which are clearly preserved in the 
fossil, show that R4 + 5 was included in the complex which he termed 
the media. 
The original insect was probably about the size of most species of 
Typus , not “very large” as estimated by Handlirsch. The wing frag- 
ment is 45 mm. long, and on the basis of comparisons with other 
protodonates, it probably represents about one-third of the complete 
wing. Since the width of the wing of pennsylvanicus is 18 mm., its 
original dimensions were probably close to those of Typus gracilis 
Carp. (Permian), which is 145 mm. long and 26 mm. wide. 
The drawing of the fossil shown in text figure 4 is based on the 
type specimen. The venational pattern, so far as it is known, is like 
