1976] 
Carpenter — Permian Insects 
363 
by the poorly preserved holotype, which has been loaned to me for 
study by the Institute of Paleontology in Moscow. The general 
form of the body and the structure of the antennae in particular 
are like those of Permembia, but the wing venation is so different 
that at least family separation seems necessary. My interpretation 
of the venation is like that of Martynova’s (1962) in most respects. 
However, I cannot discern the short vein that she has identified 
as CUP, or the vein posterior to it in her figure; and I see no trace 
of the basally oblique vein which her figure shows extending from 
R to the M+RS complex. My concept of what can definitely be 
seen in this wing is shown in figure 16. Although there are simi- 
larities to the venation of Permembia, there is one very significant 
difference: the absence in Sheimia of a free RS arising independ- 
ently from R. For this reason, I do not believe that Sheimia can 
be considered at all closely related to the Permembiidae, in spite 
of the apparent similarities in body structure. 
Martynova was of the opinion that Sheimia was a member of 
the order Embioptera and she designated a separate suborder 
(Sheimiodea) for it, a view that was subsequently followed by Riek 
(1970, p. 179). For my part, I do not believe that there is enough 
evidence for an embiopteran position of this fragmentary fossil 
to justify extending the range of the Embioptera from the Oligo- 
cene (their present earliest record), back to the Permian — an in- 
terval of about 190 million years. There is certainly no indication 
in the specimen of S. sojanensis of the thickened blood sinus (Rl), 
or of the enlarged fore basitarsi, or even of a generalized vena- 
tional pattern that might have led to that of the existing order 
Embioptera. It seems to me preferable, therefore, to assign the 
family Sheimiidae to incertae sedis at the ordinal level within the 
orthopteroid complex until additional and better preserved speci- 
mens of Sheimia have been found. 8 
3. Family Apheloneuridae, new family 
Very small insects, with fore and hind wings similar, but not 
identical, in both size and venation. Fore wing: SC ending on 
8 I have recently examined about thirty specimens of insects, comparable in size 
to Sheimia sojanensis and from the same deposit, but none of them are even re- 
motely related to the Sheimiidae. 
