STRUCTURE AND RELATIONSHIPS 
OF THE UPPER CARBONIFEROUS INSECT, 
PROCHOROPTERA CALOPTERYX 
(DIAPHANOPTERODEA, PROCHOROPTERIDAE) 
By Frank M. Carpenter 1 and Eugene S. Richardson, Jr. 2 
Prochoroptera calopteryx was described by Handlirsch (1911) 
from a single specimen in a concretion from the Francis Creek Shale 
(Pennsylvanian) in northeastern Illinois. Although poorly preserved, 
the fossil showed several unusual features. Because of these and its 
very incomplete preservation, the insect’s relationships have been 
decidedly controversial. Fortunately, after a lapse of nearly seventy 
years following the publication of Handlirsch’s account, three more 
specimens have recently been found in concretions from the same 
deposit. These additional fossils, which have been turned over to us 
for study, provide considerably more information about the insect 
than the type and enable more reliable conclusions about its 
relations with other Paleozoic insects, even though much of its body 
structure still remains unknown. It clearly belongs to the extinct 
order Diaphanopterodea and is only the second species of that order 
known from Pennsylvanian strata in North America. Descriptive 
accounts of all four specimens of calopteryx are included below, 
with a discussion of the relationships of the family Prochorop- 
teridae. 
For the opportunity of studying these new specimens we are 
indebted to Helen and Ted Piecko of Chicago, and Mr. J. J. Fagan 
of Burbank, Illinois. Handlirsch’s type of calopteryx has been 
placed at our disposal by Jean S. Lawless, Division of Invertebrate 
Paleontology, Peabody Museum, Yale University. Partial support 
of this research is gratefully acknowledged to the National Science 
Foundation, Grant No. DEB 78-09947, F. M. Carpenter, Principal 
Investigator. 
'Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachu- 
setts 02138. 
2 Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois 60605 
Manuscript received by the editor, November 25, 1978. 
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