Undescribed fossil insects from the Upper Permian of Belmont, New South Wales (with an appendix listing the described species)
Abstract
Five unusual or problematic fossil insects from the Upper Permian of Australia are described and illustrated.
The Upper Permian strata at Belmont has yielded a rich and varied insect fauna. Those orders which constitute the dominant elements of the fauna have been studied and the species described in a number of papers by Tillyard (1918, 1919, 1921, 1922, 1924, 1926a, 1926b, 1929, 1935a, 1935b, 1935c), Evans (1943a, 1943b, 1947, 1950, 1956, 1958, 1963), Davis (1942, 1943), Riek (1953), and Kukalova (1966).
Although most of the fossil insect specimens have been studied, there remains unrecorded a small number of unusual and very interesting species. In some cases the affinities of these fossils are obscure while in other cases the remains are rather fragmentary and, although for these reasons one refrains from naming them, they are worthy of discussion even if only to indicate the presence of certain archaic orders of insects which have not previously been recorded from the Australian Permian. As extensive collecting of this horizon is unlikely to be undertaken in the near future, it is considered appropriate that the remaining components of the fauna should be recorded.
Only five specimens are considered worthy of discussion, though there are several interesting fragments that defy classification at present. These are mostly small fragments of relatively large wings. Only one of the five specimens discussed below is formally named.
