1976] 
Carpenter — Permian Insects 
359 
2. Family Permembiidae Tillyard 
Permembiidae Tillyard, 1937, p. 92. 
In 1928 Tillyard described, as a new genus and species, Permem- 
bia delicatula, a very small insect that he placed in the family 
Delopteridae Sellards (1909). Convinced that this family was re- 
lated to the Psocoptera [Copeognatha], he transferred the Delop- 
teridae from the Protorthoptera, where it had been assigned by 
Sellards, to the Psocoptera, within a new suborder, Embiopsocida. 
Subsequently (1937) Tillyard erected the new family Permembiidae 
for the genus and also placed there the new genus Nugonioneura. 
The affinities of both these genera have remained obscure. Nu- 
gonioneura, now better known than previously, has been shown 
above to belong to the Protorthoptera, but Permembia still re- 
mains a mystery. 
Martynov, in 1930 and unknown to Tillyard, had already placed 
the family Delopteridae in synonymy with the family Palaeoman- 
tidae Handlirsch (1906) and had designated the Palaeomantidae 
as representative of a new order, Miomoptera (1927). 6 Subsequent 
studies of additional material have confirmed Martynov’s con- 
clusion on the synonymy of these families and have tended to sup- 
port the recognition of the Miomoptera as a distinct, though poorly 
defined, order. In 1962, Martynova in a general survey of the order 
Miomoptera also placed the family Permembiidae there, but with 
Figure 15. Permembia delicatula. Drawing of fore wing, based on holotype. 
Length of wing, 2.8 mm. 
6 For an account of the nomenclatural complexities involved in the designation 
of this taxon, see Carpenter, 1935, p. 105. 
