The image to the right was scanned by Roy Beckemeyer from an Elmo fossil in the possession of Dr. George Byers, Emeritus Professor of Entomology from Kansas University. It is a protorthopteran of the Family Lemmatophoridae, likely Lemmatophora typa Sellards 1909. Not catalogued, the fossil is in a small collection of that Dr. Byers uses in teaching entomology classes. Thanks to Dr. Byers for allowing me access to his fossils. See the discussion below for additional pictures including drawings depicting how paleontologists think that this and other fossil insects might have looked.
Many insect fossils consist only of wings or wing fragments.
This is because wings are basically cuticle, so they are generally not eaten by predators, and do not deteriorate as quickly as other portions of the body which contain muscle and other tissues. Thus many of the insects from the Elmo deposit are known only by their wings. Some, however, are found in such numbers at the site that body parts have been found preserved as well. When enough body fragments are available, the paleontologist studying the insect may be able to do a reconstruction or restoration drawing depicting what the insect likely looked like. For those taxa, we include here habitus drawings.