1972] 
Kukalovd-Peck — Palaeozoic Insect Order $ 
245 
fact was unusual enough to inspire the thoroughfull examination of 
abdominal tergites of all known Megasecoptera for this feature. 
After a detailed discussion with Dr. Carpenter (during my tenure 
as Alexander Agassiz Lecturer in Zoology at Harvard University), 
I visited the Museum d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris on my return 
trip to Europe. This institution’s collections hold the most extensive 
material of Paleozoic Megasecoptera (Brongniart, 1893; Carpenter, 
1951). I found that each of the sufficiently preserved megasecopteran 
bodies (mostly Mischopteridae) had prolonged filaments leading from 
the posterior margin of the abdominal tergites. The projections were 
visible only under glycerin, a medium which was obviously not ap- 
plied to the fossils by previous students. It should be noted that in 
the Mischoptera douglassi nymph the bases of the projections give a 
perfect spine-like appearance, which now seems to be due to incom- 
plete preservation. Recently, Carpenter and Richardson (1971) de- 
scribed long filamentous projections in Eubrodia dabasinskasi (Brodi- 
idae) extending posteriorly along the mesothorax to almost the end of 
the body. 
The specimens of Megasecoptera and Palaeodictyoptera newly in- 
troduced in the present paper contribute significant features to the 
knowledge of the projections. Sylvohymen sibiricus n.sp. (Bardohy- 
menidae), a megasecopteron from the Lower Permian of Siberia, 
shows the hollow, broken bases of projections located not only along 
the posterior margin of abdominal tergites, but also on tergal nota 
of the whole body (fig. 1 and pi. 1). M'onsteropterum moravicum 
n.sp., a palaeodictyopteron from the Lower Permian of Czechoslo- 
vakia, presents well preserved projections (fig. 6 and pi. 3), showing 
details of the surface and of multiple branching. 
Summarizing our present knowledge, we can say that the processes 
or projections are hollow outgrowths of the tergites and are usually 
arranged into regular transverse rows, are simple or branched, and 
are short to very long, according to the particular families. The 
outgrowths are directed up and backwards from the body, so that 
they protrude. The ventral side of the projection-bearing bodies is 
not known. On the thorax, the projections may form spines, or may 
be filiform, identical to those on the abdomen. The abdominal projec- 
tions with their superimposed series of fringes, resemble the tradi- 
tional skirt of the Spanish national female costume. It is possible 
that all species of Megasecoptera possessed projections, more or less 
developed, both adults and nymphs. Projections of the same char- 
acter occurred in some Palaeodictyoptera, but probably not in all 
families. 
