F. M. Carpenter

The First Mesozoic Ants

Two worker ants preserved in amber of Upper Cretaceous age have been found in New Jersey. They are the first undisputed remains of social insects of Mesozoic age, extending the existence of social life in insects back to approximately 100 million years. They are also the earliest known fossils that can be assigned with certainty to aculeate Hymenoptera. The species, Sphecomyrma freyi, is considered to represent a new subfamily (Sphecomyrminae), more primitive than any previously known ant group. It forms a near-perfect link between certain nonsocial tiphiid wasps and the most primitive myrmecioid ants.

Fossiliferous Amber from the Eocene (Claiborne) of the Gulf Coastal Plain

Middle Eocene lignite and lignitk shale in the central Arkansas Coastal Plain contain fossiliferous amber in association with commercially exploited refractory clay. A rich, excellently preserved spore and pollen assemblage occurs with the amber and establishes the age of the strata as lower Claiborne (lower middle Eocene). Similarity of infrared absorption spectra of the Claiborne amber to infrared spectra of Holocene Shorea sp. resin suggests the tropical, resinous hardwood family Dipterocarpaceae as a possible botanical source. Preliminary examination of approximately 300 insect inclusions sufficiently well prepared for examination indicates that the insect orders Hemiptera (Homoptera), Diptera, and Hymenoptera dominate the fauna. Five additional insect orders are sparsely represented; there are also rare Araneae and plant remains. The Claiborne amber fauna seems characterized by relatively small individual size and low taxonomic diversity, with many individuals but relatively few species.

The Baltic Amber Snake-Flies (Neuroptera)

The snake-flies, comprising the neuropterous suborder Raphidiodea, have had a long geological record. Like the scorpion-flies (Mecoptera), they appear to have been more extensively represented generically and specifically in previous geological periods than at present. They have been described from the Permian of Kansas and Russia (Carpenter, 1943; Martynova, 1952), the Jurassic of Turkestan (Martynov, 1925; Martynova, 1947), the Miocene of Colorado (Carpenter, 1936), and the Oligocene .of the Baltic amber.

Review of the extinct family Syntonopteridae (order uncertain)

The family Syntonopteridae was named by Handlirsch in 1911 for a new genus and species, Syntonoptera schucherti, from the Upper Carboniferous of Mazon Creek, Illinois. Although the unique specimen on which the species was based consisted of only a wing fragment, the presence of several intercalary, triad veins was of unusual interest. During the 75 years that have passed since then, only six additional specimens of the family have been found (Carpenter, 1938, 1944; Richardson, 1956), all of them in the Mazon Creek beds. The latest of these specimens was sent to me for study by Dr. E. S. Richardson, Jr., a few months before his death, and I have only recently had the opportunity to study it and prepare illustrations. While working on this fossil, I decided to reexamine at the same time the other five specimens in the family known to me. A review of these specimens is included here, followed by revised diagnoses of the family and of the two known genera.

The Affinities of Eomerope and Dinopanorpa (Mecoptera)

The two ossil Mecoptera discussed below were originally described by T. D. A. Co.ckerell many years ago. One of them, Eomerope tortriciformis, was obtained in the Oligocene shales at Florissant, Colorado; and the other, Dinopanorpa megarche, was collected in a Miocene deposit near the’ Amagu River in eastern Siberia. Study of the type specimens or the present paper was made possible by the courtesy ot the authorities o the Peabody Museum at Yale University, tor Eomerope, and of the U. S. National Museum, for Dinopanorpa. Eomerope was assigned by Cockerell (19o.9) to the mecopterous family Meropeidae, which, at that time, was a monotypic tamily, represented by Merope tuber Newman, a little-known species infrequently collected in the eastern part o the United States. However, a second species, Austromerope poultoni, rom Western Australia, was described by Killington in I933. These two genera, although having obvious differences in acies, are closely related, as indicated by the similar structure of the male genitalia. In his account of Eomerope, Cockerell made no reference to another mecopteron, Notiothauma reedi MacLachlan (I877), which occurs in part of Chile and which is the only known representative of the t:amily Notiothaumidae. In all probability, Cockerell was not aware o( this insect, since its existence was not generally made knovn until the publication of Esben-Petersen’s monograph o the Mecoptera in I92I. From my study of the type of Eomerope and comparisons with specimens of Merope and Notiothauma, I am convinced that Eomerope belongs to the amily Notiothaumidae instead of the Meropeidae. The reasons or this conclusion are given below, following the account of the genus and species.

The Structure and Relationships of Okuarces (Neuroptera)

Somewhat more than forty years ago, Dr. John B. Smith, while traveling in California, collected a conspicuous neuropterous insect, which was subsequently described by Banks (1908) as Oliarces clara. Efforts to find additional individuals were unsuccessful for many years, but a second specimen has at last been secured. Mr. P. A. Adams, of the University of California, who received the insect from the collector and who has already published a note on its discovery (1950), kindly loaned me the new specimen for further study and for comparison with the type. I am indebted to him for this courtesy and for the opportunity of clarifying, to some extent, the systematic position of this remarkable insect.

An Eocene Bittacus (Mecoptera)

In 1928 I described, as Palaeobittacus eocenicus, a species of the family Bittacidae from Eocene strata in Colorado. This has been the only representative of the Mecoptera in Eocene deposits and the earliest unquestionable record of a living family of the order. A second Eocene bittacid has now turned up, this time among an extensive collection of insects which Dr. Carl Parsons and I made nearly twenty years ago in Utah. I appears to be a true Bittacus with characteristic wing venation and body features

Trichoptera From the Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee

The caddis-flies listed in this paper were collected by Professor Nathan Banks, Dr. P. J. Darlington, Jr., and the writer in the Black Mountains of North Carolina and the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee during August and September of 1930. Several specimens collected by Dr. and Mrs. W. S. Creighton in the Black Mountains at about the same time are also included. For the opportunity of studying this material and for many helpful suggestions, I am indebted to Professor Banks. The types of all new species are deposited in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. The summer of 1930 was very dry in the southern Appalachian region and as a consequence caddis-flies were not very abundant. But about two hundred and fifty specimens were collected, belonging to twenty-three species, including five new ones, as well as three new genera. Several species previously known only from the types were taken in considerable numbers, and both sexes of other species formerly known only by one sex were also secured.

A Megasecopteron From Upper Carboniferous Strata in Spain

In 1962 Professor F. Stockmans, of the Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, kindly sent me for study two insects from Upper Carboniferous deposits in Northern Spain. One of these (no. 94.837), from the Mine de Poleiro, is part of a cockroach tegmen, which cannot be placed with certainty even to family level. The other specimen (no. 97.587), from shales near the village of Magdalena, is a nearly cornplete, well-preserved wing of a megasecopterous insect. Since it shows interesting venational features and since there seems little chance of obtaining additional insects from this deposit in the near future, I have considered it advisable to publish a formal description of the fossil at this time. I am indebted to Dr. Stockmans not only for his courtesy in loaning me these specimens but for providing me with information about the geology and stratigraphy of the formation concerned.

Studies on North American Carboniferous Insects. 2. The Genus Brodioptera, From the Maritime Provinces, Canada

Although few in number, the insects which have been found in the Upper Carboniferous strata of the Maritime Provinces of Canada are of exceptional interest. They occur in rocks which are well down in the Westphallan stage (Zone A) and are therefore only a little younger than the oldest insects known (Namurian). In 1957, Dr. M. J. Copeland of the Canada Department of Mines and Technical Surveys published an account of the arthropod fauna of the Upper Carboniferous rocks of these provinces and included descriptions of two species of the genus Brodioptera, which he placed in the Order Megasecoptera. Since Dr. Copelands descriptions and illustrations are inadequate for our present needs of interpreting the relationships of these insects, I have found it necessary to make a study of this material. I am indebted to Dr. Copeland for arranging to have the type specimens loaned to me for this purpose.