1984] 
Mockford — Psocoptera 
317 
The Philotarsidae as defined here may be the sister group of the 
common stem of Bryopsocidae plus the Pseudocaeciliid-Calopsocid 
branch, but not necessarily. An argument of about equal strength 
could be made for a liaison between Philotarsidae and Mesopsoci- 
dae or Philotarsidae and Elipsocidae. I do not believe that present 
data are sufficient to solve this problem. 
Summary 
A comparison of genera of Families Philotarsidae and Pseudo- 
caeciliidae indicates that the classification of Family Philotarsidae 
proposed by Thornton (1981) is unacceptable. The two major gen- 
era of his subfamily Zelandopsocinae ( Zelandopsocus Tillyard and 
Austropsocus Smithers) are more closely related to Family Pseudo- 
caeciliidae than to his other subfamily, Philotarsinae. One new fam- 
ily, Bryopsocidae, is erected for Bryopsocus Thornton, Wong, and 
Smithers. This genus is intermediate in several respects between 
Philotarsidae and Pseudocaeciliidae (both families as redefined 
here) and is unique in several others. Families Philotarsidae and 
Pseudocaeciliidae are redefined and the named genera assigned to 
each are listed. Zelandopsocus and Austropsocus are transferred 
from Philotarsidae to Pseudocaeciliidae. Pseudocaeciliidae and 
Calopsocidae appear to be sister groups. Bryopsocidae may be a 
sister group to this pair, but certain alternatives are possible. Philo- 
tarsidae may be a sister group to the trio Pseudocaeciliidae- 
Calopsocidae-Bryopsocidae, but several other families, including 
Archipsocidae, Trichopsocidae, Elipsocidae, and possibly Mesop- 
socidae would have to be investigated for a complete understanding 
of the Phylogeny of these groups. 
Acknowledgments 
This is part of a study supported by National Science Foundation 
grant no. BSR-8219659 to Illinois State University. An earlier draft 
of this work was read by Dr. A. Badonnel of the Laboratoire de 
Zoologie (Arthropodes), Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, 
Paris, and by Dr. Gary E. Eertmoed, Department of Biological 
Sciences, Chicago State University. Useful suggestions from these 
colleagues permitted notable improvements in the final draft. 
