PSYCHE 
Vol. 90 
1983 
No. 1-2 
STUDIES ON 
UPPER CARBONIFEROUS INSECTS: 
I. THE GERARIDAE (ORDER PROTORTHOPTERA) 
By Laurie Burnham 
Department of Entomology, Cornell University, 
Ithaca, New York 14853; 
and Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138* 
Introduction 
Despite the importance of the order Protorthoptera,' little is 
known about its evolutionary history. While recent workers have 
emphasized morphological and taxonomic diversity in the group 
(Carpenter, 1971, 1977; Wootton, 1981), no one has undertaken 
serious revisionary study at the family level. As a consequence, our 
understanding of relationships within the order, as well as relation- 
ships of the Protorthoptera to other Paleozoic insects, is rudi- 
mentary at best. Clearly, revisionary studies on this group are badly 
needed. 
We know that the Protorthoptera first appear in the fossil record 
at the base of the Upper Carboniferous (Namurian Stage) and 
apparently flourished for 80 million years before becoming extinct 
at the end of the Permian. We also know that they were remarkably 
'It was one of the dominant orders of the Paleozoic (exceeding all other insects 
both in number of species and in number of individuals), and is considered by many 
to be ancestral to the Endopterygota (the group to which 90% of all living insects 
belong). 
■"Present address. 
Manuscript received hy the editor March 5, 1983. 
