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Psyche 
[December 
nomenclature are being used in the Hymenoptera, each 
more or less limited to a certain group of families. Com- 
stock, MacGillivary, and a few others have proposed sys- 
tems intended to homologize the venation with that of 
other groups, but hymenopterists in general have not 
accepted these schemes. More recently Tillyard has ad- 
vanced a new and radically different system (1924) based 
on the assumption that the Protohymenoptera exhibit the 
primitive condition of the venation in the hymenopterous 
line of descent; and he believes that through this interpre- 
tation the whole of the homologies of the veins at once 
“becomes clear and of the utmost simplicity’’ (1926c, 
p. 256). 
Let us consider briefly the opinions expressed by other 
entomologists on the affinities of the Protohymenoptera, 
and on the new system of venation in the Hymenoptera, 
based on these fossils. Lameere (1927) accepts the insects 
as representatives of the group ancestral to the Hymen- 
optera, and also adopts the venational interpretation, with 
a few slight modifications. Handlirsch (1927), however, 
has briefly (without discussion) suggested that the fossils 
are more closely related to the Megasecoptera than to the 
Hymenoptera, and may actually belong to that order. 
Cockerell (1927) appears to accept the fossils as of hymen- 
opterous nature, but suggests some changes in the inter- 
pretation of the veins. Crampton (1927) agrees that the 
fossils are hymenopterous and he favors the venational 
system. 
Martynov has studied the question more thoroughly. In 
1928, while collecting insects in the Permian beds (Kazan) 
of Northwest Russia, he discovered a single wing which 
resembles both the Kansan Protohymenoptera and certain 
Carboniferous Megasecoptera. From his study of this 
fossil and the Kansan specimens in the Yale collection, he 
concluded that the Protohymenoptera were really close to 
the Megasecoptera, and not related to the Hymenoptera. 
“They belong to my subdivision Paleoptera containing all 
orders, chiefly extinct, in which the wings were outspread 
when at rest. Indeed, both Protohymen permianus Till, 
and Permohymen schucherti Till, were found in the out- 
spread condition of the wings, and even Tillyard thinks 
