STUDIES ON 
NORTH AMERICAN CARBONIFEROUS INSECTS. 
6. UPPER CARBONIFEROUS INSECTS 
FROM PENNSYLVANIA* 
By Frank M. Carpenter 
Museum of Comparative Zoology 
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 02138 
This study is based on fossil insects from the Anthracite Coal 
Fields of Pennsylvania. In 1977 Mr. William F. Klose II, of Noxen, 
Pennsylvania, sent me for identification a series of fossil insects that 
he had collected in beds belonging to the Llewellyn Group of the 
Allegheny Series. Subsequently he arranged for a loan of specimens 
in the Reading Public Museum and Art Gallery, all of which had 
been collected many years ago by Claude Weston Unger in beds 
apparently also belonging to the Allegheny Series. The age of the 
Allegheny is about equivalent to that of the Late Westphalian of 
Europe, possibly slightly older than the Carbondale Formation of 
Illinois, in which the Mazon Creek nodules occur, and considerably 
older than the insects-bearing beds at Commentry, France. Al¬ 
though remains of insects are found only very infrequently in the 
Anthracite Coal Fields and are usually fragmentary, the specimens 
are of much significance because of their age. 
The insects were apparently inhabitants of swampy regions. 
Remains of plants are well represented in both the Klose and Unger 
collections and are often preserved in close association with the 
insects. Mr. Klose has identified the plant genera Lepidodendron, 
Neropteris, Pecopteris, and Sphenophyllum from specimens occur¬ 
ring with insects on pieces of the shale. These plants were typical of 
the coal swamps of the Upper Carboniferous. Cockroaches were by 
far the predominate insects. Of the fifty specimens of insects in the 
collections at hand, forty-five, or 90%, belong to the Blattaria, a 
percentage that is typical for such coal beds. Four specimens 
represent the orders Protodonata, Caloneurodea, and Protorthop- 
tera, which will be discussed below. In addition, there is a specimen 
of a small insect [No. 11025 (K6345)] that appears to be related to 
*Manuscript received by the editor September 28, 1980. 
107 
