Eomeropidae

Eomeropidae is a family of aberrant, flattened scorpionflies represented today by only a single living species, Notiothauma reedi, known from the Nothofagus forests in southern Chile, while all other recognized genera in the family are known only as fossils, with the earliest definitive fossil known from Liassic-aged strata,[2] and the youngest from Paleogene-aged strata.[2][3]

Eomeropidae
Temporal range: Sinemurian–Recent
Notiothauma reedi
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Mecoptera
Family: Eomeropidae
Cockerell 1909
Genera
  • †Eomerope
  • †Jurathauma[1]
  • †Tsuchingothauma
  • †Thaumamerope
  • †Typhothauma
  • Notiothauma

Genera

There are five extinct genera and one monotypic living genus which have been placed in Eomeropidae.

  • †Eomerope. Cockerell 1909 This genus is known from Paleogene fossils from Eocene and Oligocene strata of North America, including the Allenby Formation and the Florissant Formation, and Paleocene to Oligocene strata of Russia.[3] Because N. reedi is not known in the fossil record, Eomerope is the youngest of the fossil genera, and has the widest range.
  • †Jurachorista. Soszyńska-Maj, et al., 2016 Known from the early Jurassic, Sinemurian aged Charmouth Mudstone Formation of Dorset, England, is currently considered to be the oldest definitive member of the family.[4]
  • †}Jurathauma. Zhang et al. 2011 J. simplex is one of three species of eomeropid scorpionflies from the Middle Jurassic Daohugou Beds of China. Its wing veins are distinct from all other eomeropids.[1]
  • Notiothauma. McLachlan, 1877 N. reedi is a remarkable species, flattened and extremely cockroach-like in appearance and habits. It is nocturnal, and scuttles on the forest floor, where it can be collected by laying trails of oatmeal. The larvae are still unknown. Because this is the last extant species of Eomeropidae, N. reedi can be characterized as a living fossil taxon.[3]
  • †Tsuchingothauma. Ren and Shih 2005 T. shihi and T. gongi are both known from the Middle Jurassic Daohugou beds of China.[5][6]
  • †Typhothauma Ren and Shih 2005 known from the Early Cretaceous Dabeigou Formation and Yixian Formation of China.[5][7]

Phylogeny

The proposed phylogenetic relationships within Eomeropidae based on Soszyńska-Maj et al 2016.[4]

 
Eomeropidae
 
 

Jurachorista

 
 

Jurathauma

 
 
 
 
 

Eomerope

 
 
 
 

Tsuschingothauma

 
 
 

Notiothauma

 
 

Typhothauma

 
 
 
 
 
 

References
  1. Zhang J-X, Shih C-K, Petrulevičius JF, Ren D (2011) A new fossil eomeropid (Insecta, Mecoptera) from the Jiulongshan Formation, Inner Mongolia, China. Zoosystema 33(4): 443–450. doi:10.5252/z2011n4a2
  2. Zhang Junxia; et al. (2011). "A new fossil eomeropid (Insecta, Mecoptera) from the Jiulongshan Formation, Inner Mongolia, China". Zoosystema. 33 (4): 443–450. doi:10.5252/z2011n4a2.
  3. Archibald, S. Bruce, Alexandr P. Rasnitsyn, and Mikhail A. Akhmetiev. "Ecology and distribution of Cenozoic Eomeropidae (Mecoptera), and a new species of Eomerope Cockerell from the Early Eocene McAbee locality, British Columbia, Canada." Annals of the Entomological Society of America 98.4 (2005): 503-514.
  4. Soszyńska-Maj, Agnieszka; Krzemiński, Wiesław; Kopeć, Katarzyna; Coram, Robert A. (2016). "Phylogenetic relationships within the relict family Eomeropidae (Insecta, Mecoptera) based on the oldest fossil from the Early Jurassic (Sinemurian) of Dorset, southern England". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 14 (12): 1025–1031. doi:10.1080/14772019.2016.1139007. ISSN 1477-2019.
  5. D. Ren and C. K. Shih. 2005. The first discovery of fossil eomeropids from China (Insecta, Mecoptera). Acta Zootaxonomica Sinica 30(2):275-280
  6. Zhao, Xiangdong; Zhao, Xianye; Chen, Lei; Zhang, Qi; Wang, Bo (December 2019). "A new species of Eomeropidae (Insecta: Mecoptera) from the Middle Jurassic of China". Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. 130 (6): 691–695. doi:10.1016/j.pgeola.2019.10.005.
  7. J. X. Zhang, C. K. Shih, and D. Ren. 2012. A new fossil eomeropid (Insecta, Mecoptera) from the Yixian Formation, Liaoning, China. Acta Zootaxonomica Sinica 37:68-71


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