The Lower Permian Wellington Formation fossil beds of mid-continent North America are known best for the famous Elmo, Kansas locality. The Elmo site has produced tens of thousands of specimens from which more than 150 species of insects have been described. Equally productive and more widespread geographically, but less well-known, are the Midco, Oklahoma beds located some 270 km south of Elmo. The Midco beds have also yielded tens of thousands of specimens, but the material has been less well studied, and only half as many species have been identified from there. Renewed attention has been given in recent years to both the geology and palaeontology of the Wellington Formation. The history of these insect beds is recounted and the insect faunal composition is briefly reviewed. There are nearly 200 species in 106 genera, 53 families and 21 orders. Sizes (as measured by mean forewing length) range from 1.9 mm to 330 mm, with a mean of 22 mm and a median of 12 mm. Ten of 13 species with fore wings greater than 50 mm in length are Protodonata. Most species are known from one or a few specimens (abundance ranges from 1 to just under 400 specimens per species). Of ten species for which 50 or more specimens are known, eight are Grylloblattida (and six of these Grylloblattida: Lemmatophorina), indicating that these taxa were either quite abundant or were preferentially preserved, or both. When reviewing the holotype/neotype specimens used to describe the Wellington Formation species, we find that 62% consist of fore wings, while 9% are complete specimens. However, when considering all known specimens, 48% of the species are known only by their fore wings, while 13% are now represented by complete specimens, indicating the importance of continued collecting and review of Wellington Formation insect fossils.

To cite this paper: Beckemeyer, R.J. & Hall, J.D. 2007. The entomofauna of the Lower Permian fossil insect beds of Kansas and Oklahoma, USA. In: Brothers, D.J. & Mostovski, M.B., eds, Congress Proceedings Fossils X 3, Pretoria, South Africa, 7-11 February 2005. Pietermaritzburg: Natal Museum, pp. 23-39.
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Beckemeyer, R.J. & Hall, J.D. 2007. The entomofauna of the Lower Permian fossil insect beds of Kansas and Oklahoma, USA. African Invertebrates 48 (1): 23-39.