The Oedischiidae are considered to be the most basal family of orthopterans; they occurred from the Late Carboniferous through the Late Permian (Sharov 1971; Gorochov 1987, 1995; Gorochov and Rasnitsyn 2002). For the most part, Oedischiidae are known only be their forewings; in the Carboniferous (Commentry, France) Oedischia Brongniart, 1885, the hind legs were saltatorial (Sharov 1971), and in the Lower Permian Uraloedischia Sharov, 1968 (Urals, Russia), prehensile spines on the legs and pointed denticles on the mandibles suggested oedischiids were predacious (Sharov 1971; Gorochov and Rasnitsyn 2002). The wing form and venation suggest they were active fliers (Sharov 1971). Besides Oedischia, a second Carboniferous genus, Sinoedischia Hong, 1985, is known from the Shanxi of China (Gorochov and Rasnitsyn 2002; Meng et al. 2006).

Oedischiids became more diverse in the Permian; known genera include Afroedischia Geertsema & van Dijk, 1999 (Middle–Upper Permian, South Africa. The Laingsburg Formation was dated as Lower Permian by Geertsema and van Dijk 1999, but is now dated as Middle–Upper Permian by Fildani et al. 2009.), Iasvia Zalessky, 1934 (Lower Permian, Russia, and Middle Permian, France; Béthoux et al. 2002), Macroedischia Sharov, 1968, Tettoedischia Sharov, 1968, and Uraloedischia Sharov, 1968 from the Lower Permian (Kungurian) of Russia, Metoedischia Martynov, 1928, Elcanoedischia Gorochov, 1987, and Mezenoedischia Gorochov, 1987 from the Middle Permian (Kazanian) of Russia, and, from the Lower Permian Wellington Formation of the United States, in subfamily Elcanoedischiinae Gorochov, 1987: Kansasoedischia Gorochov, 1987 (Kansas), and in Mezenoedischiinae Gorochov, 1987: Petrelcana Carpenter, 1966 (Kansas), and Pseudoiasvia Bethoux & Beckemeyer, 2007 (Oklahoma).

Of the more than 200 species of insects known from the Lower Permian Wellington Formation of Kansas and Oklahoma, USA (Beckemeyer and Hall 2007), eleven are in the order Orthoptera: eight from the Elmo, Kansas deposits (Tillyard 1932; 1937; Carpenter 1943, 1966; Gorochov 1987), and three from the Midco, Oklahoma (Noble County) formations. Four of the eleven species, one from Kansas and three from Oklahoma, were described only recently (Béthoux and Beckemeyer 2007; Beckemeyer 2011). The new taxon described here constitutes the tenth genus and twelfth species of Wellington Formation Orthoptera (see Beckemeyer 2011 for a list of previously described species). It seems most closely related to Oedischia and Petrelcana.

This description is based on a forewing specimen (Figs 1, 2) collected by Don Arnold and Rick Grantham of Oklahoma State University (OSU). The holotype is in the K. C. Emerson Museum, Department of Plant Pathology and Entomology, OSU. The specimen comprises part and counterpart of a nearly complete wing, absent approximately the basal 20% of the wing length (including the precostal area), the anal field, and the posterior margin of the cubital field; cross veins are poorly preserved in the distal radial and medial fields.

Photomicrographs of the part and counterpart were made using a Nikon 990 digital camera with an American Optical dissecting microscope and an external strobe flash (Nikon SB-26). Flash orientation was optimized to show details of interest. The photographed images were processed using Adobe Photoshop 6.0 and imported into a vector-graphics software program (XARA Extreme 4.0, XARA Group, Ltd., London), where they were assembled into composite images. The venation reconstruction drawing was made as an overlay (Fig. 3).

Venation interpretation and notation follow the system of (Béthoux and Nel (2001, 2002). Since that system is relatively new, not uniformly accepted, and not in as wide use as the terminology of Sharov (1971), (Gorochov (1987, 1995), Carpenter (1992), and Gorochov and Rasnitsyn (2002), I list here the relationship between the most common notation systems:

Order Orthoptera Olivier, 1789

Family Oedischiidae Handlirsch, 1906

The combination of character states of Nobloedischia rasnitsyni make placement in one of Gorochov’s subfamilies somewhat problematic; it would perhaps come closest to fitting in Oedischiinae. Nobloedischia shares with Oedischia the characters: origin of anterior branch of MA moderately remote from its anastamosis with RP (as in Gorochov 1995: Fig. 142); distance from branching of M+CuA to branching of M subequal to distance from branching of M+CuA to fusion of CuA and CuPaα, and greater than length of cross veins between CuA+CuPaα and MP; ratio of width of costal field (anterior margin–ScP) to width of subcostal field (ScP–RA) less than 1.5; field between RA and RP with some cross veins bowed and/or sigmoidal rather than straight; CuPaα medium sized basal of its fusion with CuA (last three characters were used by Béthoux and Nel 2002, to distinguish the clade (Gerarus bruesi Meunier, 1909 + Oedischia williamsoni)). On the other hand, Nobloedischia is differentiated from Oedischia by the characters listed in the Diagnosis (vide supra). Béthoux and Nel (2002) used a total of 74 characters in their cladistic phylogenetic analysis of the Orthoptera; I have not repeated that analysis, but did code the characters and found that of the 61 character states that could be compared (the remaining characters were not preserved in available specimens of one or the other of the taxa) between Nobloedischia and Oedischia, 52 matched and 9 did not.

For the other oedischiids, the next closest pairing was between Nobloedischia and Elcanoedischia, with 45 of 58 character states matching. However, Nobloedischia differs from genera in Elcanoedischiinae Gorochov 1987 by branching of MA moderately remote from anastamosis with RP (as in Gorochov 1995: Fig. 142) rather than MA branching close to fusion with RP, with this short segment of MA appearing as a thick cross vein between MA/MA2 and RP+MA1 (as in Gorochov 1995: Fig. 144). Nobloedischia can be differentiated from genera in Tettoedischiinae Gorochov, 1987 by costal field not greatly wider than subcostal field; base of MP well basal rather than at or distal to base of RP; branching of CuPb basal rather than distal to branching of M+CuA. Nobloedischia differs from genera in Mezenoedischiinae by the features listed in the Diagnosis section for Petrelcana (vide supra). Because of the presence of these conflicting character states, at this point I prefer to leave the subfamilial assignment undetermined.

The high number of densely distributed specimens (wings and wing fragments) present on the slabs containing this species seems to support Hall’s (2004) thesis that the Oklahoma Wellington Formation insect deposit facies are derived from marginal marine lagoon sediments, with insect remains likely comprised of allochthonous material washed in by streams.