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Psyche 
[September-December 
origin of MA to the fork of MP are indicative of family relation- 
ship. Oboria, however, differs from Elmoboria in having a more 
extensively branched RS and a deep fork on MA. 
Order Neuroptera 
The three suborders of Neuroptera (Sialoidea, Raphidioidea, 
and Planipennia) are first found in Permian deposits. The Plani- 
pennia have the most extensive record of the suborders in that 
period, with representations by three families and eleven genera. 
All of these Permian fossils are from the Soviet Union and/or 
Australia and most are from Upper Permian beds. However, 
specimens of two species have been described from Lower Per- 
mian deposits in the Kuznetsk Basin of the Soviet Union, although 
their precise position in the Lower Permian has not been deter- 
mined. Until now these specimens have comprised the oldest 
record of the Planipennia. 4 
In the Museum of Comparative Zoology there is an incomplete 
wing of an ithonoid planipennian collected at Elmo in 1927. The 
hope of finding better specimens has deterred me from describing 
it over these many years, but since no additional fossils have 
turned up, I have decided to include a formal description of the 
species here. Inasmuch as the Elmo beds are part of the Lower 
Permian (Sumner Group), this new planipennian is at least as old 
as the Kuznetsk fossils. It clearly belongs to the Permithonidae. 
Family Permithonidae Tillyard 
Permithonidae Tillyard, 1922, p. 289; Martynova, 1961, p. 476. Synonyms: Per- 
megalomidae Martynova, 1952, p. 201; Permopsychopsidae Riek, 1953, p. 82. 
Fore wing: costal area moderately broad; costal veinlets numer- 
ous, somewhat irregular, some branched; SC terminating on R1 
distally or connected to it by a short cross vein; few to many cross 
4 Tillyard (1932, 1937) placed three genera of insects from the Elmo beds in the 
Planipennia but all have now been recognized as belonging to other orders: one 
( Permobiella ), to the order Caloneurodea, and the other two ( Permoberotha and 
its synonym, Dictyobiella ), to the order Glosselytrodea (Martynova, 1962a). The 
latter order, although originally considered to be orthopteroid, is almost certainly 
closely related to the Neuroptera (Carpenter, 1964; Sharov, 1966). 
