Eomeropidae is a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

of aberrant, flattened

scorpionflies Mecoptera (from the Greek language, Greek: ''mecos'' = "long", ''ptera'' = "wings") is an Order (biology), order of insects in the superorder Holometabola with about six hundred species in nine Family (biology), families worldwide. Mecopterans a ...

represented today by only a single living species, ''

Notiothauma reedi ''Notiothauma'' is the sole living genus in the scorpionfly family Eomeropidae. The genus is monotypic with a lone species ''Notiothauma reedi'' which is native to the Valdivian temperate rain forests of central Chile, especially the forests wit ...

'', known from the ''

Nothofagus ''Nothofagus'', also known as the southern beeches, is a genus of 43 species of trees and shrubs native to the Southern Hemisphere, found across southern South America (Chile, Argentina) and east and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Guin ...

'' forests in southern

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, while all other recognized genera in the family are known only as fossils, with the earliest definitive fossil known from Liassic-aged strata, and the youngest from

Paleogene The Paleogene Period ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Neogene Period Ma. It is the fir ...

-aged strata.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.

Ecology

''Notiothauma'' adults are thought to be

saprophagous Saprotrophic nutrition or lysotrophic nutrition is a process of chemoheterotrophic extracellular digestion involved in the processing of decayed (dead or waste) organic matter. It occurs in saprotrophs, and is most often associated with fungi ...

with a preference for carrion, having been observed feeding on dead chickens and rabbits, though in one experimental study they were also observed feeding on plant material.

Genera

There are six extinct genera and one monotypic living genus which have been placed in Eomeropidae. * †'' Eomerope''. Cockerell 1909 This genus is known from

fossils from

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

and

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

strata of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, including the

Allenby Formation The Allenby formation is a sedimentary rock formation in British Columbia which was deposited during the Ypresian stage of the Early Eocene. It consists of conglomerates, sandstones with interbedded shales and coal. The shales contain an ...

and the

Florissant Formation The Florissant Formation is a sedimentary geologic formation outcropping around Florissant, Teller County, Colorado. The formation is noted for the abundant and exceptionally preserved insect and plant fossils that are found in the mudstones an ...

, and Paleocene to Oligocene strata of

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Because ''N. reedi'' is not known in the fossil record, ''Eomerope'' is the youngest of the fossil genera, and has the widest range. *†'' Burmothauma'' Zhang at al. 2022 ''B. eureka'' is known from the mid Cretaceous

Burmese amber Burmese amber, also known as Burmite or Kachin amber, is amber from the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar. The amber is dated to around 100 million years ago, during the latest Albian to earliest Cenomanian ages of the mid-Cretaceous period. Th ...

of Myanmar. * †'' Jurachorista''. Soszyńska-Maj, et al., 2016 Known from the Early Jurassic,

Sinemurian In the geologic timescale, the Sinemurian is an age (geology), age and stage (stratigraphy), stage in the Early Jurassic, Early or Lower Jurassic epoch (geology), Epoch or series (stratigraphy), Series. It spans the time between 199.5 ±0.3 annu ...

aged

Charmouth Mudstone Formation The Charmouth Mudstone Formation is a Formation (geology), geological formation in England, dating to the Early Jurassic (Sinemurian–Pliensbachian). It forms part of the lower Lias Group. It is most prominently exposed at its type locality in cl ...

of Dorset, England, is currently considered to be one of the oldest members of the family. * †'' Jurathauma''. Zhang et al. 2011 ''J.'' ''xinjiangensis'' is known from the Early Jurassic (Sinemurian) Badaowan Formation of Xinjiang, China, while ''J. simplex'' is known from the Middle Jurassic

Daohugou Beds The Haifanggou Formation (), also known as the Jiulongshan Formation (), is a fossil-bearing rock deposit located near Daohugou () village of Ningcheng County, in Inner Mongolia, northeastern China. The formation consists of coarse Conglomerate ( ...

of Inner Mongolia, China.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. * ''

Notiothauma ''Notiothauma'' is the sole living genus in the scorpionfly family Eomeropidae. The genus is monotypic with a lone species ''Notiothauma reedi'' which is native to the Valdivian temperate rain forests of central Chile, especially the forests w ...

''. McLachlan, 1877 ''N. reedi'' is a remarkable species, flattened and extremely

cockroach Cockroaches (or roaches) are insects belonging to the Order (biology), order Blattodea (Blattaria). About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. Some species are well-known Pest (organism), pests. Modern cockro ...

-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 A living fossil is a Deprecation, deprecated term for an extant taxon that phenotypically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of or ...

taxon. * †'' Tsuchingothauma''. Ren and Shih 2005 ''T. shihi'' and ''T. gongi'' are both known from the Middle Jurassic

Daohugou beds The Haifanggou Formation (), also known as the Jiulongshan Formation (), is a fossil-bearing rock deposit located near Daohugou () village of Ningcheng County, in Inner Mongolia, northeastern China. The formation consists of coarse Conglomerate ( ...

of China.D. Ren and C. K. Shih. 2005. The first discovery of fossil eomeropids from China (Insecta, Mecoptera). ''Acta Zootaxonomica Sinica'' 30(2):275-280 * †'' Typhothauma'' Ren and Shih 2005 known from the Early Cretaceous

Dabeigou Formation The Dabeigou Formation () is a palaeontological formation located in Hebei, China.Yixian Formation The Yixian Formation (; formerly Romanization of Chinese, transcribed as Yihsien Formation or Yixiang Formation) is a geological formation in Jinzhou, Liaoning, People's Republic of China, that spans the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous. I ...

of China.

Phylogeny

The proposed phylogenetic relationships within Eomeropidae based on Soszyńska-Maj ''et al'' 2016. Eomeropids have been suggested to be most closely related to the also poorly diverse and relictual

Meropeidae Meropeidae is a family of tiny scorpionflies within the order Mecoptera with only three known living species, commonly referred to as "earwigflies" (or sometimes "forcepflies"), based on the earwig-like forceps-shaped male genitalia. The living s ...

References

Mecoptera Insect families Extant Triassic first appearances {{Mecoptera-stub