1960] 
Carpenter — Protodonata 
107 
families: Protagrionidae Handl., Meganeuridae Hand!., and Paralogi- 
dae Handl. The Protagrionidae 4 were known only from a single wing 
(Protagrion audouini) , but the Meganeuridae were known from many 
specimens, some of which included the body structures. Handlirsch’s 
definition of the order was accordingly based on the meganeurids and 
the order itself was considered by him to be related to both the 
Paleodictyoptera and the Odonata. In the course of several years, as 
more meganeurids and Paleodictyoptera were found, it became in- 
creasingly evident that the Protagrionidae were not at all closely 
related to the Meganeuridae or to the Odonata. In 1932, Martynov 
(1932a), after pointing out the differences between these two groups, 
removed the Meganeuridae and Paralogidae from the Order Pro- 
todonata and placed them in a new order which he erected for them, 
the Meganisoptera. The Order Protodonata was therefore left with 
the family Protagrionidae, which was then recognized as having no 
odonate affinities. 
In 1943, after a detailed study of the original specimen of Protagrion 
audouini (preserved in the Paris Museum), I published an account 
of this fossil and transferred the family Protagrionidae to the Paleodic- 
tyoptera, where it clearly belongs, in association with several related 
families ; at the same time I restored the Meganeuridae and Paralogi- 
dae to the Order Protodonata, as they were originally placed by 
Handlirsch. 
In 1957, in h is account of the classification of the Odonata (p. 21), 
Fraser agreed to the separation of the Protagrionidae from the 
Meganeuridae and Paralogidae, but he insisted that the name Proto- 
donata must be associated with Protagrion , and contended that I was 
in error in placing the Meganeuridae in the Order Protodonata. His 
reason for these assertions was that “Brongniart established his family 
Protagriidae [Protagrionidae] on a single genus Protagrion (1885) ; 
the family was therefore a monotypic one and by the International 
Rules of Nomenclature it matters not whether the family afterwards 
assumed ordinal rank or that further genera or families were added 
to it, it must take the characters from Protagrion , that is, from the 
original type.” 
Throughout this article I am using the name Protagrionidae, instead of 
Protagriidae, for the family based upon the genus Protagrion. This is in 
accordance with the information provided by Professor Joshua Whatmough 
of Harvard University and published in B. E. Montgomery’s article on this 
subject (Annals Ent. Soc. Amer., 47: 473-474, 1954). 
