1930] 
Permian Insects of Kansas 
343 
THE LOWER PERMIAN INSECTS OF KANSAS 
PART 3. THE PROTOHYMENOPTERA 
By F. M. Carpenter* 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass. 
The order Protohymenoptera was established by Tillyard 
(1924) to include a series of fossil wings contained in the 
Yale collection from the Lower Permian of Kansas. As 
indicated by the name, Tillyard believed that this group 
was ancestral to the Hymenoptera and was sufficient to 
prove that the Hymenoptera originated independently 
from the rest of the holometabolous insects (1926b). While 
it is true that certain morphological features of the Hymen- 
optera, such as the reduced wing venation, and the poly- 
nephric Malpighian system, remove the group from the 
true panorpoid orders ; the results of morphological studies 
(Crampton, 1919, 1927) indicate that the Hymenoptera 
arose from the same stem as all the other insects with 
a similar metamorphosis. 1 It is therefore advisable for 
us to submit any paleontological evidence which seems 
inconsistent with this view to the carefullest examination. 
Aside from phylogenetic consideratons, the question of 
the affinities of the Protohymenoptera has close bearing 
on the interpretation of the wing venation in the Hymen- 
optera; for the specialized condition of the wings in the 
Hymenoptera has prevented entomologists from satisfac- 
torily homologizing the veins with those of other insects. 
As a result, a number of different systems of venational 
* National Research Fellow, Harvard University. These studies 
have also been aided by grant No. 280 of the Bache Fund, National 
Academy of Sciences, and a Sheldon Traveling Fellowship from 
Harvard University. Part 1 (Introduction and the Order Mecoptera) 
was published in the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 
70 (2), 1930; Part 2 (Paleodictyoptera, Protodonata, and Odonata) 
will appear in the American Journal of Science, 21 (2), 1931. 
1 Handlirsch, however, has held the opposite view (1906-08). 
