FOSSIL INSECTS FROM ANTARCTICA* 
By Frank M. Carpenter 
Harvard University 
The only fossil insects from Antarctica that have been formally 
described are two beetles, Grahamelytron crofti Zeuner and Ade- 
mosynoides antarctica Zeuner, both from a Jurassic deposit on 
Mount Flora, Hope Bay, Grahamland, at the northern tip of the 
Antarctic peninsula (Zeuner, 1959). Since these are known by 
isolated elytra, their family positions are obscure and conjectural at 
best. 
Two other fossil insects from Antarctica have been reported in 
the literature but not named. One of these, a well preserved wing 
of “Permo-Carboniferous” age, was found in the Theron Mountains, 
near the Filchner Ice Shelf, during the Trans-Antarctic Expedition 
of 1955-58 (Plumstead, 1962). Unfortunately, the specimen appears 
to have been lost in the mail after it was consigned to Dr. Zeuner 
for study (personal communication, Dr. James Schopf), the only 
record of it being the photograph published by Plumstead. Although 
overlain by plant fragments, the wing was apparently well preserved 
and its venation could have been worked out satisfactorily from the 
specimen. Even the small, published photograph is sufficient to show 
that the insect was homopterous, although venational details are 
not clear enough to permit determination of family affinities. 1 
Homoptera of this general type are not uncommon in Permian de- 
posits in the Soviet Union, United States and Australia. The other 
specimen, a wing fragment of Permian age, was found in the Polar- 
star Formation of the Sentinel Mountains of Antarctica on the 
east slope of Polarstar Peak (Tasch and Riek, 1969). Despite the 
obscure nature of this fossil, Riek was led to conclude that it was 
a part of a homopterous fore wing, with a venation reminiscent of 
the family Stenoviciidae, known from the Permian and Triassic of 
eastern Australia and the Permian of Russia. My own, subsequent 
study of this specimen, made with the aid of ammonium chloride 
and under several different types of illumination, has revealed the 
presence of two additional longitudinal veins and numerous cross 
*This research has been supported in part by Grant No. GB 7308 from 
the National Science Foundation, F. M. Carpenter, Principal Investigator. 
^ressitt’s suggestion (1967) that the fossil might be neuropterous is not 
really supportable. 
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