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Psyche 
[June 
tion. The collection at the Museum has not been subjected to extensive 
restudy until recent years. Even Handlirsch, in connection with his 
monograph of fossil insects in 1906-1908 and his revision of Palaeozoic 
insects in 1919, made no examination of the Commentry fossils in 
the Museum. Many additional Commentry insects were found and 
placed in the Museum subsequent to Brongniart’s death in 1899. 
Most of these were studied and described by Fernand Meunier in a 
series of superficial and confusing papers (1907-1921). Professor 
Aug. Lameere of Belgium, however, did make a careful study of 
both the original Brongniart material and the specimens later accumu- 
lated; his most significant account (1917) dealt with corrections in 
morphological details and systematics given by Brongniart and 
Meunier; his observations were remarkably good, although the com- 
plete absence of illustrations make the use of his revision somewhat 
difficult. 
1 ° J 935 Professor F. M. Carpenter, realizing both the significance 
of the Commentry insects and the lack of reliable information about 
them, decided to make a systematic study of the collection in the Paris 
Museum in connection with his investigations on Permian insects. 
He visited the Museum first in 1938, making photographs of all the 
type specimens, as well as drawings of specimens of some families. 
Following three other visits to the Museum (1961, 1962 and 1966), 
he published accounts revising the Commentry Protodonata, Megase- 
coptera, Diaphanopterodea, Ephemeroptera, and Caloneurodea. In 
1967, realizing the extent of the fossils in the Commentry collection 
still remaining to be studied, he encouraged me to work on the large 
order Palaeodictyoptera, a group having more representation in the 
Commentry collection than in all other collections in the world com- 
bined. He turned over to me all the photographs and notes which 
he had previously made, and he obtained financial support from the 
Scientific Research Society (Sigma Xi) and the National Science 
Foundation for my visits to the Museum in Paris (1966, 1967) 
and my work in his laboratory at Harvard University. I am deeply 
indebted to Professor Carpenter for his assistance, without which 
the preparation and publication of these studies would not have been 
possible. 
During my stay at the Institut in Paris, I was enabled, through 
the courtesy of the Director, Professor J. P. Lehman, to restudy 
all specimens of Palaeodictyoptera in the Museum collection. Dr. 
J. Sornay of the Institut also kindly gave me great assistance with 
the collection. Unfortunately, some of the specimens previously 
present could not be found in 1966 or 1967, the only record of them 
